Happy Earth Day

April 22, Earth Day, a chance to reflect on the nature of the environment and how we use/abuse it.

Every year I take the Sunday closest to Earth Day to raise up environmental issues in the worship time. In preparation for tomorrow I re-read some proposals I made last summer. Some of them are doable, some may not be. All would be politically unpopular, some may even say untenable. But then some issues require true leadership, leadership which pushes us to do what is right, rather than what is popular.

IT is challenging to stand up in a part of the world that relies on forestry and mining and electricity production and challenge assumptions about susatainable affordable use of the earth. It is challenging in a time of rising gas prices ($1.109 per liter when I filled up this morning) to say that we ned to pay more for our energy. BUt if enough of us start to do it maybe, just maybe, people will start to think differently.

In the Spirit of the day, try out the Ecological Footprint quiz. Here are my results (a little sobering):

CATEGORY----------------- GLOBAL HECTARES
FOOD -------------------------------3.3
MOBILITY --------------------------0.5
SHELTER ---------------------------0.9
GOODS/SERVICES ------------------1.4
TOTAL FOOTPRINT ----------------6.1

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 3.4 PLANETS.