What’s in a footprint?

    For most of his time on earth man has been a minor consumer of the earth’s stores of energy. With the discovery of fire man began to increase his demands and draw on the short-term energy stores that had been accumulated over scores of years or even centuries by woody plants.  In the last hundred years with the invention of the internal combustion engine and a huge increase in population man has begun to tap the planets long-term energy supplies of oil and natural gas at an alarming rate. We have shaped a world where our lifestyles revolve around and are dependent on oil and the consumption of energy from fossil fuels.

    To make a proper assessment of our individual energy footprint it is necessary to allow for not only the gasoline burned on the trip to the store but the number of “BTU”s (British Thermal Units, a measurement of heat ) used to make the new metal pan you purchased. Add to this a share of the energy used to package the pan, get the item to the store, and operate the store till you bought the pan. Only when we begin to include in our footprint, part of the energy in all the different variables thrust upon us by society, and used in our behalf, can we get a proper and true picture of our energy footprint.
                                                              
    Looking at our impact in this way may seem unfair but creates a more realistic and somewhat uglier picture of our true energy use. Only when prorating our share of the energy used  to light the street in front of our home while we sleep and assuming responsibility for our share of the energy used to light the bridge not far from our home as well as the energy used to create junk mail, deliver it to your home each day then haul it off to a recycling plant or landfill are the last touches that must be placed on the portrait named “My True Impact” Under this premise, if we personalize the question and ask, what's in my energy footprint? I fear the answer is far more then what most of us would like to admit.


Footnote; Another post dealing with our attitudes about waste shows up in the fact that those running for public office appear almost afraid to utter the word "conserve", below is the link
                       http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2012/01/candidates-shy-away-from-c-word.html