The 'ecological footprint' of a person or a process represents the sum total of the pressure that they exert on the environment. This is something I would like to try to make visible.
This is a CNC router from Diversified Machine Systems. This is, in some ways, the core of my idea. In earlier version of this proposal, I prominently announced my desire to invest in a CNC machine like this. Investing in a machine like this would offer the possibility of starting a real, serious, financially viable business.
These machines can quickly process whole stacks of plywood, and they can generate hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in revenue. One of these machines has the approximate physical and energetic footprint of an electric car. I like the idea of working at the scale of an electric car, and trying to see what else I could do with that same amount of energy.
I said earlier that
The conversation about 'solving climate change' is often framed with the assumption that the design of a liveable future requires totalizing, universal solutions. There is also a popular aspriational vision of a green future that feels just like this one, but everything is green.