Climate Change Global Hero - Jim Merkel
Jim Merkel used to work in the United States designing and marketing industrial and military systems. But after a trip to Kerala India, Jim decided to quit his job and change the way he lived. Kerala showed Jim that people could live healthy, meaningful lives while consuming just 1/60th the amount of energy used by North Americans. Since each person limited how much energy they used, the community had more than enough resources for everyone. It was on this trip that Jim developed a good understanding of sustainable living.
Today, Jim lives with his partner Erica in a straw cabin which cost $1,600 to build. The two live simply in order to limit the number of resources they consume. They ride bikes, eat organic local food and claim that "together our possessions could fit into one medium-sized van". Jim and Erica also give workshops, teaching people about something called an ecological footprint.
An ecological footprint is a system of measuring how much of the world's energy and resources a person uses up. Typically, North Americans have enormous ecological footprints--they use up more than their share of the world's energy. For example, Canada and the United States consume 25 per cent of global energy used each year despite having only about 5 per cent of the world's population. Calculate your ecological footprint.
To find out more about what Jim and Erica are doing to promote a sustainable future, check out the Global Living Project website at http://www.globallivingproject.org/.
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