on Ecological footprint

I think you better start with my previous post:
'On economic crisis vs. environment'

I got interested and i decided to dig in, apparently there seemed to be some kind of proportionality between how developed a country is with how much waste they produce.

then i found this plot:

On the horizontal axis its the Human Development Index rank.
(some one created a ranking of countries based on the HDI, which is some sort of measure for:

• quality of life, such as health indicators and access to health-care services, life expectancy at birth, nutrition levels,
  
• education and literacy levels,
  
• access to basic needs such as water and sanitation, and so on.
  
• It also takes into account GDP per capita in terms of Purchasing Power Parity
  
• and percentage of the population living below the poverty line.

So, here is the thing, it is possible to live an ecologically sustainable life and be amongst the 40 most developed countries, but for that you need to learn tango.

Economic crisis vs. Environment

On the radio this morning a comedian was talking about the advantages of the increasing unemployment in the US:
"last month hundreds of thousands, 5 million the last year, about 10% of the population". and he finds that "formidable, absolument genial".
(...)
"The more Americans are unemployed, the more chances we have to survive" all because "they are the worse pollution makers in the planet"
(...)
"what no one was able to do, from the ecologists of the 'Club of Rome' to those of Rio and Kyoto, the cupid(?) bankers at Wall street managed to do it in less than two years with their sub-prime".


I decided to make my own investigation about the differences of the US, Switzerland and Portugal:
here is a nice statistics web page.

One of the most interesting results in my view is the 'Ecological footprint'*:

(click to view other countries)

So here it is my conclusion:
United States produces 6.5 times more waste than they should(12.22/1.89).
Switzerland produces 3.5 times more waste than they should(6.63/1.89).
Portugal produces 2.6 times more waste than they should(4.99/1.89).

now, the question is: If we humans are too stupid to do something, can you tell me in which year is Wall-E going to be released?

(*) The Ecological Footprint is a method of measuring and analyzing resource consumption and waste output compared to the renewable capacity of nature. It represents the amount of productive land area needed to produce the resources (food,energy and materials) and to absorb the wastes produced by an individual. Since 1980, the average per capita ecological footprint has decreased as many processes (especially crop production) have become more efficient.If the ecological footprint exceeds the available productive land, The resource use is considered unsustainable.
Globally, the available ecologically productive land area included in the Ecological footprint analysis is 1.89 hectares for each person. The footprint takes into account fossil fuel use, cropland, forests, nuclear and hydroelectric power, fisheries and buildings.

Easter

This year it all started with a weather forecast. Our plans to go down to Italy for some sunny holidays had to be postponed to some other time when heavy rain is not part of the plans.

Although the weather forecast for geneva was not that smiley it ended up by resulting in 4 days of nice Spring sunny break.

Tried to be outside in a relaxed way ,going to lavey les bains, making picknick, walking around enjoying the city.

It was in one of those excursions that I realized the publicity posted on the public transport of Geneva TPG, sponsored by the Catholic church.
On the image of a lamb, one reads " party meal, or symbol of innocence?" (more)
Interesting uhh? a church spending money like that to publicize on its own symbols..

well, but the story is not only this, apparently the TPG refused a previous access to the l'Association suisse des libres penseurs to post a outdoor like the one below, that had already been circulating in other European cities (more more):
Sometimes some things are just too obvious.
_______________________________________
But my Easter was not only about watching buses passing...

It started in a morning with a nice long sandwich, apparently a tradition in a particular Swedish family. The ingredients were, bread, mortadela, cheese (Gruyere and goat), boiled egg, tomatoes, salmon, cournichons and ham. Great Start!

Finally on monday we did a nice pick-nick close to the lake with some friends, we painted eggs and we did some crash test contest of the previously painted eggs. the greek girl with a baby in her belly won the crash contest, and i like to think that I won the painted eggs contest.
Here are the contestants:
So who do you think should win the egg contest?