Ecological footprint?

[Tsmuktengan]

It has been a while I use this as a sort of reference and indicator to consume more reasonably. For those who do not know what this is, the ecological footprint "is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet's ecological capacity to regenerate."

This measure highly depend and rely on one person's way of life and habits. For me, it is one good indicator to know how much we consume, and if we affect the environment more or less heavily or not.

In western states, the ecologic footprint is increased in a great part because of exceeding polluting gases, carbon dioxide and methane emissions. Using this, I try to make my diet very diverse but using local products to avoid encouraging heavy unoptimized transportation systems, avoid wasting energy and water, etc.

WWF offers a basic test to estimate your ecological footprint.

What do you think about it? Do you use some kind of reference or similar? What result do you get?

[Irtaviš Ačankif]

Well, local products don't make that big of a difference. Probably all you did to eat local products was offset by the extra few seconds the refrigerator light was on because the local products don't come in boxes and are harder to fit in.

[Tsmuktengan]

Not really in my case : the light in my refrigerator are LEDs that consume almost nothing. 

However, what may depend is where the meat comes from (far), the various facilities to make sure it stays fresh, and also the fact that the more people eat meat, the more a population needs cattle. Big cattle farms are capable of producing impressive quantities of methane that then goes into the atmosphere if the cattle defects aren't disposed or recycled (rare farms in France are able to produce their own gaz with this). I don't think I am wrong about this, although I cannot show exact figures.

[Niri Te]

 Well, out here in the western states, as tsmuktengan puts it, a lot of us can just walk out the front door with rifle in hand, and shoot an Antelope or Deer that is grazing on our property.  How's THAT for "Eat locally produced food"? Those that have a penchant for tame, rather than wild meat, can just go to the local rancher, point to a particular Steer, agree upon a price, and in a week, have hundreds of pounds of locally "grown" beef, at a price FAR less than they would have paid at the local Supermarket, AND the Rancher got a far better price for his steer. the ONLY person that got left out, was the GREEDY people in the middle.
Those that choose to live in the RATS NEST cities need to understand that there is a heavy price that they will pay for doing so.
Niri Te

[Tsmuktengan]

I think in the sense of the WWF, this means food from your region or from your state. If you are located in Texas, it is much better to eat Texan meat than meat imported from Brazil (I know you might find this weird, this is just an example).

Not everyone has the license or just the possibility to chase his meat every week though. And when you have a house, you have to take other settings into account to make sure you don't waste energy.

[Niri Te]

I think in the sense of the WWF, this means food from your region or from your state. If you are located in Texas, it is much better to eat Texan meat than meat imported from Brazil (I know you might find this weird, this is just an example).  
Not everyone has the license or just the possibility to chase his meat every week though. And when you have a house, you have to take other settings into account to make sure you don't waste energy.

I don't find that weird at all my tsmukan, why pay all that money for the shipping costs, and get meat that is MONTHS old, rather than days old. 

You are correct, those of us that live in the Country are blessed beyond measure, That is why we find it laughable when some College Kid going for their Phd does this "study" on "The poor people who live in poverty out beyond the power, and phone lines".
We may not have the hundred thousand dollar a year jobs, but the lifestyle out in the boondocks is SOOO much less stressful, and HERE is a funny one for the studies, the farther apart our houses get, the CLOSER we become communally.
You could offer me a quarter of a million dollar a year job, where I would have to live in a City, and I would turn you down without even thinking about it.
What we have out here, you could not buy with Ten Million Dollars.
Niri Te

[Irtaviš Ačankif]

I think in the sense of the WWF, this means food from your region or from your state. If you are located in Texas, it is much better to eat Texan meat than meat imported from Brazil (I know you might find this weird, this is just an example).

Not everyone has the license or just the possibility to chase his meat every week though. And when you have a house, you have to take other settings into account to make sure you don't waste energy.

Well of course. However, if you live in Beijing it actually makes more ecological sense to buy, say, Australian beef than Beijing beef. This is because unlike Texas, Beijing is not a good place to raise cattle. In fact, cattle need more food and die more in Beijing (plus cattle herders are less conscious of the environment), so in this case local=bad to the environment, since Beijing cattle is inefficiently raised.

[Tsmuktengan]

I can understand Beijing cattle isn't good. 

But isn't there Chinese meat that can be good for example?

The logical thing here is not necessarily to avoid buying products from another country, but to avoid privileging products that use airplane or boat transportation that can consume much more energy than trucks traveling in a specified area (even if sometimes you don't have the choice and have to buy foreign products).

I still think things would me way better is motors were using more sustainable and less polluting combustibles. But we all know why this just won't appear soon...

[Irtaviš Ačankif]

Yup. For example pork

I only disagree with the "buy local only" thing. This actually sometimes has bad results. For example, I would definitely buy Beijing pork over, say, American pork, but I would by say, Texan beef over Beijing beef

[Tsmuktengan]

Yup. For example pork

I only disagree with the "buy local only" thing. This actually sometimes has bad results. For example, I would definitely buy Beijing pork over, say, American pork, but I would by say, Texan beef over Beijing beef

I agree, but the question is rather "would you buy this everyday?".  

['Oma Tirea]

Frankly, I'm quite happy that my hometown is one of the most ecological in the country (or at least it tries very hard)

[Tsmuktengan]

Frankly, I'm quite happy that my hometown is one of the most ecological in the country (or at least it tries very hard)

Why so? How does it tries to be more responsible? I am really interested.