Ecological footprint
Mar. 19th, 2005 09:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
velvetpageI tried a little experiment.
My previous ecological footprint stated that if everyone lived like me, we'd need 3.4 planets. When I answered exactly the same way, but claimed to be from Ethiopia, the answer was 1.4 planets. As far as I could tell, only one question was different: the possible choices for housing sizes were different (i.e. started at smaller numbers). I still answered with the highest number they offered for Ethiopia.
So why two whole planets' difference?
I'm getting skeptical, here. It looks like the test is designed to guilt-trip people in the West into living better. Granted, we should. But I don't like being fed inaccurate information in order to convince me of that. It's dishonest.
I'd love to see some other people try this and see what they get.
http://www.myfootprint.org/
My previous ecological footprint stated that if everyone lived like me, we'd need 3.4 planets. When I answered exactly the same way, but claimed to be from Ethiopia, the answer was 1.4 planets. As far as I could tell, only one question was different: the possible choices for housing sizes were different (i.e. started at smaller numbers). I still answered with the highest number they offered for Ethiopia.
So why two whole planets' difference?
I'm getting skeptical, here. It looks like the test is designed to guilt-trip people in the West into living better. Granted, we should. But I don't like being fed inaccurate information in order to convince me of that. It's dishonest.
I'd love to see some other people try this and see what they get.
http://www.myfootprint.org/