consumption in australia

So last week you saw that US consumption is doing some pretty crazy things to our planet. Well guess who is placed second behind them in consumption of energy and water? Australia. (www.acfonline.org.au) Yep, closely following our US buddies.

So the ACF foundation has a Consumption Atlas that can tell us how much greenhouse gases we produce, water we consume, and our overall eco-footprint in our area.

In South Australia our average greenhouse gas emissions is 17.24 tonnes per person per year. That's like me flying from Adelaide to Amman (Jordan) and back, TWICE, plus a one way to Bali. Mind you SA is 10% below the national average. Where I live in SA, the average is 17.19 tonnes per person per year. My personal amount of greenhouse emissions in the last year was 23.9 t! (I did fly to Jordan and back = 7.7 t in green house gases)

Now SA's state average of water usage per person, per year is 670,000 litres. The national average is 722,500 litres. My personal usage is 600 000 litres. Note that our water usage includes not just what we use at home, but the use of water to produce our food and our stuff.

Now what is an eco-footprint you ask? well it is the total amount of land required to supply all the resources of a persons lifestyle. The national average is 6.4 hectares per person, per year. The SA average is 6.56 per person per year. The area I live in is 6.65 hectares pp. pa. My personal footprint is 5.4 hectares.

So what does all this mean. Well my results show that I'm close to the average Australian in my consumption. And this is BAD! Like the video said. If we keep living like this we will need 4 or 5 planets to keep us going!!! AND WE DON'T HAVE 4 or 5 PLANETS!!!

So what are the right levels of consumption to keep Australia sustainable????

Well the ideal amount of green house gases that we should each produce should be 4 tonnes!!!! That means reducing our current usage by 13 tonnes!

The ideal water consumption per person per year should be 500000 litres. And each persons eco-footprint should only be 1.8 hectares!

So this week I want you to go to this website and look at the consumption of the area you live in, and then click the link that says 'how do I rate?' Fill out the online form. It only takes a minute, and then please post a comment with your averages.
http://www.acfonline.org.au/consumptionatlas/

If we realise how much we actually consume, then that is the first step to making changes.

Cheers

Carly