Magazine Finds ‘Eco-Friendly’ Woman to Have the Largest Carbon Footprint

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Mirror, mirror on the wall. Who's got the lowest carbon footprint of them all? The "eco-conscious" one, says Marie Claire magazine.

An "urban hipster," a "mountain maven" and a "globe-trotter" competed to see who "[was] earth-friendly and whose carbon footprint [was] to blame for drowning polar bears and worse" in the September 2007 issue of Marie Claire.

The article, entitled, "Whose Carbon Footprint is the Smallest," found that globe-trotter "Josie," who "considers herself more eco-conscious than most people," had the largest carbon footprint.

Josie "recently earned a certificate in conservation biology from Columbia University" but "caught travel fever" last year and went to "China, Hong Kong, Germany Washington, Utah, Brazil, Ecuador and Costa Rica."

According to the judge of the competition, author of "The Rough Guide to Climate Change" Robert Henson, "Josie's wanderlust caused her footprint to balloon well above average."

Even the most virtuous of the eco-conscious can catch the travel fever, apparently. One of the contest judges suggested if Josie couldn't curb her travel, "The next best thing is to purchase carbon offsets (you pay a company to do something green-virtuous) to assuage guilt and lighten your eco-load."