How many Earths do you need?

Written By: - Date published: 11:56 pm, September 26th, 2007 - 2 comments
Categories: climate change - Tags:

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Here’s an online game that aims to show you what the world would look like if everyone lived like you…

The site asks you a series of questions about your lifestyle, and as you play, it will show you how many “Earths” of natural resources it would take to sustain all 6.6 billion humans. if everyone lived like you.

Apparently I’d need about five which is pretty bad. I hate to finish a post on a low though so I should point out that there’s better news in Flanders (Belgium, not the Simpsons) where apparently they’ve managed to “decouple” waste from economic growth. Their population has increased and got wealthier but they’re producing less waste.

They’re largely doing it by recycling. A combination of taxes and incentives has pushed their recycling rate up to 72 per cent in some areas – I’m not sure what our national total rate is but of paper and plastics it’s apparently around 20%.

And before you ask, yes, it’s my parrot.

2 comments on “How many Earths do you need? ”

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  1. Moz 1
    28 September 2007 at 11:22 am

    Interesting, although not without flaws… the mpg of “my” car affected my score, even though “miles driven” was zero. “meals prepared outside my home” has a big effect, so making my lunch at work instead of at home cost me (visit supermarket on the way to work once a week… why buy stuff, carry it home, then carry it to work?).

  2. all_your_base 2
    29 September 2007 at 12:10 am

    How many earths did you need Moz?

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