Footprint Quiz

Have you ever taken the footprint quiz. I just did and found out that I, roughly, take up 18 biological acres. Apparently, that's a lot. It seems there are only 4.5 biological acres per person on this planet. The quiz results stated that if everyone on the planet did the same as me we would need 3.9 planets to exist. This is a very scary thought because I think I do a halfway decent job at conserving energy, using public transportation, walking, eating right, etc. Our energy usage has certainly dropped a lot in the past year. We are trying to be more energy efficient with our appliances, etc.
You can find the footprint quiz at earthday.net.
Hopefully, you won't be as surprised as I was. Hopefully, you are already taking steps toward being more Earth friendly.
The quiz really opened my eyes. There is alot of very simple things we can do to be more symbiotic with the Earth.

Carpool

How hard is it to carpool? There has to be someone in your town that works with you. I think you would be surprised, if you put a note on a bulletin board at work, to find out that there are a lot of people who want to carpool but just don't know who to ask.

Use public transportation

If public transportation is available to you, use it. Travel with the masses. It can be fun. When I lived in San Francisco, I used public transportation every day. You can meet or just watch a lot of very interesting people when you use public transportation.

Eat less meat

Sure meat tastes good. I love it, too, but do you reallize how much land is needed to raise cattle and other animals. It's a lot. How about those rain forests, eh? How many acres of rain forest were destroyed so McDonalds could raise cattle cheaply? Try tofu. It's pretty good. If you're not cooking, you might not even be able to tell the difference between a tofu burger and a meat burger. Your body will thank you.

Eat Organic fruits and vegetables

One word. Pesticides. Pesticides are ruining our fresh water sources. That's not a good thing. Do you know that only 3% of the water on Earth is fresh water. Wow, huh?

Use less electricity

Turn off the lights when you're not home or not in a room for that matter. Change your light bulbs to compact fluorescent light bulbs. Compact fluorescent light bulbs use 80% less electricity. That translates to a lot of green. Buy energy-efficient appliances. Energy-efficient appliances use less electricity and less water. This will save you money.

Use less oil

This will also save you money. All you have to do is turn the heat down a few degrees. Put on a sweater. If you are not home, turn it down a few more. I'm not saying to turn it off. You don't want your pipes to freeze in the winter, but turn the heat down a little.

Anyway, there are lots more we can do. I am going to try to at least do what I just ranted about for the last half hour.

Enjoy Earth Day.
Turn your heat down.