SlaveryFootprint.org ~ what does it mean?
It means that we consumers with disposable income who buy jeans and medicine and cinnamon and shrimp and almonds and gadgets and CDs and everything else you can imagine, have slaves working for us.
This new and shocking website was introduced about a month ago and had such overwhelming demand that it crashed on the first day and was gone. Re-tooling the site and boosting servers, the site reemerged today and I was able to take the test.
Of course I already knew my weaknesses: clothes and gadgets. Not every gadget known to humankind (I am not an Apple product user, so there), but many, many gadgets.
A few years ago I asked my family to please stop buying me clothes for presents as I had enough to last a lifetime. Awareness was setting in. At that time I also vowed to not enter a mall for one year. I was NOT habitually or compulsively shopping. The truth is I am in my late 40s and buy good stuff so I still have it all. That one year of not shopping for ANYTHING but food went to two years. Now I buy maybe a few pieces of clothing in a year and that’s it – besides food. Having stuff is fatiguing.
But the damage is done, as I learned today. I have 80 slaves working for me, hardly my proudest moment. And as “green” as I run my life and business, it apparently isn’t mattering too much. Recycling and repurposing only goes so far.
Changes need to occur and it starts with awareness. The site is really well designed. It was a bit buggy for me at first but when I went back to start fresh in a new window, my answers were saved via cookies.
Take the test and let me know your number. Together we can scale it back.
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