Quantifying the task:

Here is a place to start. http://www.footprintnetwork.org/gfn_sub.php?content=calculator

While there's stuff to wonder and disagree about, and like most of these surveys can't seem to restrain itself from being a bit of a sales pitch, but by and large this is a pretty fair and accurate assessment.

At this moment, as fairly as I can determine, even as minimally as I live currently, according to this test I consume the sum total output of 13 acres. This means if everyone lived as I do we'd need 2 and a half planets to approach "sustainability."

I've got a very very long way to go. While I"m living on about half that of the average American, I'm still consuming 6 times too much, and I'm personally doing nothing whatsoever to make the world a better place.

It is if we are on that speeding train, heading for the collapsed bridge--some people have their hand on the throttle pushing full bore, and some of us would rather crash at a leisurely pace.

We need hands on the brakes--these hands are nowhere to be seen.