My Foodprint

As we become more and more concerned about our carbon footprint on the Earth, the carbon footprint calculator is emerging as the popular operating tool to gauge our impact. Though not many consult these calculators on a daily basis to ascertain their footprint on daily runs to the grocery store, or the daily work commute, I do believe they will become more popular. On this planet we are coming to realize the importance of every action we undertake on the earth, creating a precarious relationship with our accustomed ways of life. And with petroleum running to $4.00 a gallon, as projected this summer, our awareness is increasing. Our every move effects our future: this is the new way of looking at our existence. The carbon footprint calculator has been adapted to the food industry, as Tesco in the U.K. has proven. Here is an example of a footprint calculator which has “food” as a calculable figure in one’s total footprint (thanks to a project at U.C. Berkeley). Another that figures one’s food imprint is here at the World Wildlife Federation Web site.

Car travel has certainly come under the scrutiny of our carbon footprint, but so has airplane travel. Airplanes are said to be less impactful to the ozone than car traffic in overall contribution, but it is also claimed that due to the altitude of plane flight, they might be 2-4 times more damaging than cars. Considering this, and considering air traffic is increasing not decreasing, this is worrisome. Aware of this concern among air travelers, a travel conglomerate called Travelport has devised a carbon footprint tracker for trips planned through their companies (Orbitz, Worldspan, GTA, Galileo). The tracker is still in its infancy, but the move represents a change in the way we will travel in the future. It presents the idea that until we have news ways to travel, which are less harmful to the environment, humans might soon be restricted by a new psychological syndrome: traveler’s guilt.

–Nick