whose footprint?

produced by the packaging industry, this commercial helped usher in the modern environmental movement in the US. This anti-littering campaign, combined with ‘recycling’, convinced consumers to buy packaged products in bulk and carefully clean and return them for downcycling. today, the concept of ‘ecological footprint’ is used to urge people to use less energy for meager improvements in actual energy efficiency. here is a typical calculator:

not many of the categories are up to me: many US cities are settled into sprawling suburban communities of single-family homes where driving is indispensable, houses tend to be large and difficult to rent, heating and cooling bills are up to the builder, power utilities are monopolized; and tons of cheap meat are widely available while fresh local produce is hard to find. what kills my footprint is the flying. something is wrong here: our only real choices are dictated by what’s available in the marketplace, as is our ecological footprint (and littering). it’s not so much our footprint we need to worry about, but theirs.