It would take 1.4 Earths to sustain everyone on the planet if they lived like Jenni Capps.
But that’s not bad compared to five Earths if everyone lived like the average U.S. citizen, or 3.2 Earths if everyone lived like an average German citizen.
Capps, a councillor with the City of Duncan, came up with this calculation after taking a quiz on the website www.footprintcalculator.org in which participants answer a variety of questions about their lifestyles, then have the impacts on the planet’s environment and ecology are calculated.
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How many hectares of land it would take to sustain each participant in the quiz is also determined, as well as how many tonnes of carbon dioxide each person creates.
For Capps, that’s 2.3 hectares and 3.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, according to her quiz results.
As chairwoman of the city’s environment and sustainability committee, Capps has been given the responsibility of gathering the quiz results from all other council members, and then sending the average results to the District of Highlands, located near Victoria, as part of its Municipal Survivor Climate Challenge.
Highlands has sent the challenge to all local governments on Vancouver Island which will have those who participate measuring the average “One-Planet Living” footprint of their mayors and council members, who then will take steps in their daily lives over the next year to reduce their average footprint.
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“It’s quite a fascinating quiz that goes quite into detail in a number of categories, like what foods we eat, what transportation we use and how much energy we use,” Capps said.
“I’m still collecting the information from the other council members. I think we’re doing pretty well here in Duncan (in regards to our environmental footprint), but this is a strong motivator to do better and I hope it will encourage other people in the community to do better as well.”
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The District of Highlands hopes to launch the competition on Earth Day on April 22, and participating local governments are expected to send the information to the district prior to then, and the competition will run one year, until Earth Day 2020.
A letter to Duncan’s council from Highlands Mayor Ken Williams said the district believes the fun competition can show community leadership while assisting in education and building local resilience in the face of a rapidly changing climate.
“Come Earth Day 2020, the participants in the Challenge will once again take the quiz and the councils’ average would then again be forward to Highlands,” Williams said. “Highlands will summarize the results and send them back to the councils.”
robert.barron@cowichanvalleycitizen.com
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