Post # 4: My Ecological Footprint

Hi again!
The blog for this week is about calculating your Ecological Footprint. Click the link and check out how you did!

CATEGORY GLOBAL HECTARES

FOOD 3.1
MOBILITY 0.1
SHELTER 0.5
GOODS/SERVICES 0.5
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 4.2

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 8.8 GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.
WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 1.8 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.
IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 2.3 PLANETS.

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Okay, so I took the Ecological Footprint test. I think I did okay -- check out my other classmates' blogs (side bar on the left) to see how I compare!

Next, I checked out my Lifestyle Footprint!

Footprint summary results

This totals up your future lifestyle choices and their footprint scores. The implication is a 'scenario' or FUTURE VISION for the region - a glimpse into what may lie ahead.

F2: Low Growth

Everything goes wrong that can go wrong, in this future of risk and paranoia. Total ecological footprint is halved, but for the wrong reasons - economic stagnation and social malaise. The rich consume avariciously while others tighten their belts, amidst a host of problems - climate change, urban unrest, toxic waste, mutant organisms, and international terrorism.

Here are the "potential scenarios" for my F2 Footprint...

2005: LOW GROWTH -- NOW!

STAYING SANE
How can the best of intentions go horrendously wrong? Take a modernizing centrist government, and place in a world which is increasingly dysfunctional and chaotic. The result? Water shortages, floods, droughts and storms: toxic bio-accumulation, trace carcinogens, genotoxic food contamination, genetically modified insects and bacteria, radioactive storage, tropospheric ozone, heat stress, tropical disease, soil erosion, invasions of weeds and rodents. It seems tragic that a golden age of prosperity could be destroyed by such obvious physical problems.
Mental aid at the mind-bank
With record numbers of people suffering from stress, paranoia, depression and psychosis, there is now a solution in sight. While picking up the groceries at your local hyper-mall, why not drop into the mind-bank, plug into your personalized alpha wave generator and breath some really cool fresh air imported from the Swiss Alps. In fact you can even don the VR gear and go skiing for an hour in our cyber-surround simulator. Much more ecologically sound, and safer, than the real thing!
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2010: LOW GROWTH -- SOON

RISK SOCIETY
In the cities there is a sudden increase in morbidity, which are now hot and fetid for most of the summer, when temperatures are regularly over 400. This accelerates the exodus of the wealthy to remoter rural areas, where house prices rocket upwards. These incoming ‘nouveaus’ build self-contained communities with jobs, schools, services and entertainment, venturing out occasionally in semi-armoured cars. In the cities, organized crime spreads rapidly, aided by a corrupted and demoralized public sector, in an atmosphere of fear and paranoia.
Risk-u-tainment
With airfares rising fast and the outdoor environment getting nastier by the day, why not get some real quality leisure time on the risk-u-tainment system. This takes extreme sports and other extreme experiences to extreme lengths, in a highly addictive system of multi-sensory stimulation, which substitutes for material consumption. This kind of thing used to be called computer gaming, or just getting stoned. Now you have a choice of chemical, digital, sexual, or mystical pathways. You can also adjust the levels of risk and aggression for that optimum balance of adrenaline buzz and ecstatic relief. While you may experience death and after-life many times in a session, the real danger is that you will not want to stop playing!
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2020: LOW GROWTH -- CHILDREN'S WORLD

REGIONAL DEFENCE
Consumption and production in such a world becomes increasingly difficult. Economic growth stagnates, due to the disruption of climate change, international terrorism, almost daily cyber-attacks with bugs and worms, and the political tension between the USA, EU and East Asia power blocs.While the rich grow richer on the gangster capitalism model, for most the loss of trust and confidence means a dramatic fall in material affluence. Meanwhile the problems of mental health and racial or ethnic tension multiply.
The enemy without and within
The next stage in the regional defence system was opened to the public. This is a multi-purpose series of physical an electronic barriers which protects the region from unauthorized migrants and asylum seekers. It also protects the high value areas from those with low or negative value. Most of Surrey is fenced and gated off with the latest infra-red surveillance and ID technology, together with private security firms who mount a network of road-blocks. Meanwhile some of the most deprived urban areas are fenced in, not only with physical barriers, but by the combination of discretionary employment, security and insurance systems.
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2050: LOW GROWTH -- GRANDCHILDREN'S WORLD
I should hope that I'm still alive then, too, but you never know...

NATURE BITES BACK
Each year now shows a more wildly uncertain weather pattern, as the sudden melting of the arctic ice creates chaos which baffles climate scientists. The SE sees its first real water shortages for 100 years, as a year-long drought is then followed by catastrophic flooding. The next year sees a malaria epidemic, for which the health service is quite unprepared, followed by an invasion of semi-lethal super-wasps. In some areas there is a spirit of pulling together against adversity, but in most areas economy stagnates as vital infrastructure fails, and fear and paranoia multiply. Ironically such economic and social problems cause a rapid fall in consumption and climate emissions.
Mother of all floods hits region
Last week saw the worst flooding ever recorded in the UK. Sea levels were at a 500-year high, with unstability in the Atlantic thermo-haline, a high tide and a hurricane-force westerly. A wall of water about 10 meters high in places hit what was left of Lewes, Eastbourne and other former resorts. The result is that about half of all coastal areas in the South East are now under water.With a full military evacuation the loss of life was kept to a minimum, but it is thought that fatalities could exceed 30 000, and that the homes severely damaged or destroyed could be over ½ million. In the chaos shops in Brighton and Portsmouth are being looted, there are arson attacks and violent demonstrations against global capitalism.