ecological footprint

I found a Really depressing story at the Chicago Tribune about the high cost of cheap cashmere. My friend, who has family in South Korea and plans to return someday, was especially distressed by this story and the environmental damage caused by the cashmere goats. She says China's growing deserts are really frightening, that especially in the Spring and Fall in Seoul for a month it is so dusty you have to cover your face when you go outside. And she says in China at that time its much worse you have to cover yourself fron head to toe to go out and when you get back you are covered in a thick layer of dust and sand.

Recently I've been researching ways to reduce my ecological footprint. My obsession began as I read Jim Merkel's excellent book Radical Simplicity. If you have never heard the term Ecological Footprint, wikipedia defines it as,