This has been an enlightening, and at times maddening discussion! Geoff Poole's detailed response (which I mostly agree with) led me to try the footprint quiz (http://www.myfootprint.org) one more time. But this time I tried an experiment - moving my location from California (US) to Bangalore (India), but keeping all the other responses identical (or as similar as possible given that the quiz changes some of the response options based on location). My footprint dropped dramatically (from 20 to 3.9). I repeated the experiment with several other locations (Mexico, Canada) and found my footprint dropping if I move out of the US.
I then tried another experiment: choosing the best (most eco- friendly) responses for each question while remaining in the US. So I become vegan, eat only locally grown food, live in a green-design residence (they don't define what this is on the quiz), travel only by public transport, never fly anywhere, etc. - and what do I get? An eco-footprint of 5. So simply moving to India with no change in lifestyle leads to a greater reduction in my footprint than a drastic greening of my lifestyle here!! Does this seem odd to you? Can we extrapolate the thought experiment: if everyone in the US moves to India - and retains their current lifestyles - will our planetary impact drop to a fifth of what it is now? These results are puzzling to me, and I must look into the details of the model underlying that quiz, particularly how location is weighted - the FAQ is rather vague on this. I'm sharing these observations because they have me scratching my head, and I would appreciate any further insights into this from more knowledgeable folks here. Madhu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Madhusudan Katti Assistant Professor Department of Biology, M/S SB73 California State University, Fresno 2555 E. San Ramon Ave. Fresno, CA 93740-8034 559.278.2460 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~mkatti ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Dreams and nightmares are made from the same materials. But this particular nightmare purports to be the only dream we are allowed: a development model that scorns life and adores things" - Eduardo Galeano
