The Article

This past Tuesday, the Star Tribune ran an article about the Compact, and there was a sidebar mention of our family gearing up to do this for a year. I've gotten some great feedback from people who saw the article, including a handful of emails from folks I wouldn't have expected to give two cents about something like this. Most people are pretty supportive and intrigued. Although, some people think it's a crazy idea, maybe even a bit stupid? I've had no fewer than 5 people ask me if we are "allowed" to buy toilet paper. Or they'll try to throw me a curve ball and ask if we're "allowed" to buy other random stuff (vacuum cleaner bags, underwear, etc.)

So, what are we really doing here? As Dom put it in his post, we aren't trying to change the world. We just want to reduce the impact of one family, be more mindful of our behavior. We aren't trying to cram this down anyone's throat.

Buuuut, in case you're wondering about the impact of your choices or lifestyle on the environment and the world's resources, there are a number of great tools on the Internet for calculating one's Ecological Footprint. Here is one such quiz. Currently, my Ecological Footprint is "16" which means that it takes about 16 productive acres of land to support my habits. If everyone on the planet had my consumption habits, it would take 3.5 Earths to sustain the population. Yikes. There are lots of these calculators floating around out there. I once took a great class on this very topic, where we tried out a number of them and compared results. Pretty interesting stuff.