Ecological Footprint

Wow, this is shocking! I thought i would have had a pretty good ecological footprint, being that i am an avid cyclist - partly for environmental reasons. However, my food consumption has really let me down! I knew i ate way too much fish meat and dairy but had not considered the environmental impact would compare or indeed trump other areas of environmental impact.

I know lots of vegetarians/vegans who are concerned with foods impact on the environment and now seeing this data it seems stupid and hypocritical to be such a proponent of public transport/cycling and then consume as "top of the food chain."

Ironically my argument for eating such a diet was that its healthy!

I honestly think this will effect the way i eat in the future; its enlightening to see such a simple representation that you can compare something like transport to food in terms of environmental impact.

Other than the food element, some factors unfortunately are out of my hands. The building i rent is quite old and without the initiative of the landlord, no efficiency improvements will be made unless it is imposed or financial incentive is given. However as we tenants pay for energy usage, little incentive is given to the landlord. Further, being low income students we wouldn't pay for something like grey water reuse in a non-permanent dwelling. This offsetting of responsibility is a problem area i believe.

Thus it seems government initiatives would be more effective in reducing the average footprint. The recent govt. insulation scheme was quite good i thought, despite its failings! my last house received free insulation and our heating costs (energy usage) went down as a result.