Wow, I just used the WWF biological footprint calculator to calculate my personal biological footprint on this earth and it frightened me!
Whilst I may not be top of the list, the amount of land and water I need to sustain my way of living, is still a massive amount. To put it simply , if everyone in the world lived the way I do we would need 2 earths worth of natural resources every year to exist. Worse, the average australian biological footprint is more than 3 of the earths natural resources. Australia is one of the worlds worst polluters per capita. I encourage you to use the calculator to see the results for yourself and then make as many changes in your daily lifestyle choices, as you can. Together we can turn this around.
Some of the ways I contribute to reducing my carbon footprint are as follows; I hardly ever purchase packaged and processed foods (a ++ double plus here as this is also good for my waistline) . I love to walk to the shops (also good for my waistline) , I try to always turn off appliances at the wall. At night I like to light candles (this is also a great relaxer, another plus +) instead of turning on the lights , I never use the air cooler although tempting during some of Noosa’s warmest months.
The truth is, we should all be doing these things on a regular basis because we are having a damaging effect on the planet. If we tread a little lighter now, the earth’s children will have more time to make the very , very big changes to the way we power our lifestyles.
We need to shift to renewable sources of energy. that is a basic fact. Its not the everyday Australians fault that we are using so many natural resources per capita. Its mainly because our main source of power in Australia is coal. Coal fired electricity. Coal is a fossil fuel( meaning the remains of fossilised living things) that is supposed to stay in the earths crust but we are digging it up at a rate of knots and burning it to fire our electricity stations and create power. When we do this, CO2 is released into the earths atmosphere, which creates global warming.
To put it into perspective, the only difference with the atmosphere of the earth compared to other planets is that we have, up until now , had very little CO2 in our atmosphere, just a few parts per 10,000. However the atmosphere of dead planets like Mars and Venus are almost all CO2. Basically the reason for this difference between earth and other planets is that over aeons huge quantities of carbon has been naturally drawn into the earths crust, where today it lies in the form of coal, limestone , natural gas and oil. This is where it should remain, but we are digging it up incredibly fast and releasing the co2 into the atmosphere at an unsustainable rate. Of course the forests can convert this CO2 for us but we are decimating our forests so fast its mind boggling. The whole process is out of control.
Ok , so you might say I am an alarmist, but does the process of digging up our fossils, burning them, and thus releasing CO2 into the atmosphere at such a rate seem natural? . Global warming is real. And it concerns me that our governments are not taking this issue seriously at all.
We need to start to invest in developing renewable and sustainable energy technologies right now. We really have no more time. we may already have run out of time and thats the truth. Many scientists believe this to be the case. Either way I believe we should be doing more than we are now, at least to show our children, and our childrens children that we made an effort. Because after all, its their planets future we are being so selfish with.
Yes this is serious and that’s why I’m so vocal. What do you think? Do you agree? Let me know.
Mimi
