I often feel that too much emphasis is placed on decreasing our ecological footprint. Even if by some incredible miracle, the entire global population began living within the means of our planet overnight, nature would still be stuffed. Soils would still be contaminated, rivers would remain polluted, native animals would continue to be preyed on by exotic pests and disease, native plants would continue to be displaced by environmental weeds, threatened species would continue to be driven to extinction by the impacts of habitat fragmentation, CO2 would still be elevated, and climate change would still be happening. The earth we... Read more →

I recently calculated my ecological footprint and found that my lifestyle is far from sustainable. So where am I going wrong? It seems the main contributor to my ecological footprint is the food I eat! This was a little surprising to me. I had imagined the greatest impact would come from things like transport, energy use and water consumption. But no, its food. Next in order of impact is goods (i.e 'stuff' like clothes and appliances), then services (gas, electricity and water), then shelter (house), and finally transportation. Back to food... One of the main reason the ecological impact of... Read more →

…and far from it. I was rather surprised as I had thought we were living a ‘relatively’ green lifestyle. As mentioned in my first post we already do a number of ‘eco’ things around the home. We also try not to consume too much and also try to buy second hand. How wrong was I!!!! I think we need to try a little lot harder! My footprint ranged from 3.8 global hectares to 4.2 global hectares depending upon which calculator I used. Far from the 1.8 global hectares it should be if we were to ensure the earth is not... Read more →

I intend to make 2009 the year my family switched to living a more sustainable life. I live in Newcastle on the east coast of Australia with my husband and 20 month old daughter (i'll call her "Little Eco"). We live in an average sized home on a smaller than average urban block only 4 km from the CBD. I have always thought of myself as being pretty green, but recently have started to realise my life is no where near as environmentally friendly as I thought, or would like. We have done all the easy things to make our... Read more →