by Jim Merkel
Published by New Society Publishers in 2003

This book is a must for anyone who wants to find out the size of their ecological footprint on the planet and reduce it by as much as possible. Jim Merkel begins the book by explaining the epiphanal* moment that transformed him from a big-car-driving, gun-owning, meat-eating, gadget-loving high-flyer working for an espionage technology corporation, to a bicycle-riding, nature-loving, nettle-harvesting vegetarian earning less than US$10,000 a year. It was the Exxon Valdez disaster of March 1989, the largest oil spill in history, in which around 11 million gallons of oil were spilled into the waters of Prince William Sound, off Alaska. He realised he could not deny his own responsibility in this catastrophe: almost everything he consumed depended on oil.

Merkel radically changed his own lifestyle, not just by being more careful about what and where he purchased but by questioning the very assumptions underlying his apparent need for many goods and services. He brings our attention to our own assumptions, dispelling some of the myths that influence our purchasing. For example, the myth that organic produce is always more expensive at first seems easy to confirm, simply by comparing shop prices. But what about the hidden costs of buying non-organic produce? "What you don’t pay over the counter you pay in taxes, dirty air, dead animals, polluted water, clearcut forests, sweatshops and strip-mined lands." Merkel also uses the idea of a person’s ecological footprint, which is the amount of bio-productive land needed to sustain their lifestyle over one year. One might think this should be a fairly small area.

But here are some facts that illustrate the urgency of the situation:
• this planet has 28.2 billion acres of bio-productive land and a population of 6 billion people
• even without taking the millions of other species into account, that leaves only 4.7 acres per person
• the average American’s footprint (and possibly the average Westerner’s?) is as high as 24 acres
• currently the world’s wealthiest one billion consume the equivalent of the earth’s entire sustainable yield
• the entire human population has been consuming in excess of the earth’s carrying capacity since 1978

The book contains a step by step section for measuring an individual’s current impact on the land as accurately as possible. It provides many suggestions for reducing this impact in all areas of life and highlights the significance for the future of our life choices. For example, Merkel discusses population growth at length and shows how the horrific 11 billion peak now being estimated may be avoidable if people become committed to having fewer or no children. There’s just one problem I see with this: the people who are likely to make such a commitment are the very ones whose evolved awareness needs to be handed down to future generations; if they don’t have children, they will die out and leave the planet to the careless billions who will continue to have as many children as they wish.

But such speculation is not always useful. What Jim Merkel’s book provides us with are the information and incentives we need to start taking personal responsibility so that whatever choices we make, we know why we are making them and what their consequences will be. His writing is thoughtful, thought-provoking and sensitive to those who might feel that a change as radical as he is suggesting is a lot to ask for. But he’s not asking it of anyone; you may well end up asking it of yourself.