The term “Ecological Footprint” was introduced in the beginning of 1990’s by a scientist in Canada and has since then spread over the world.
Our ecological footprint measures how much of the earth’s biologically productive area we use for our consumption – everything from the food we eat to the waste we leave after us.
A persons accumulated footprint is made up of many little squares spread around the earth which are used to manage our lifestyle.
Our footprints are calculated…
- through the housing, roads, food, wood and paper products we use for ourselves and our pets
- by adding up the area of woods, pasture, ocean and farmland that is needed to produce what we consume
- by adding the extra forest that would be needed to absorb the carbon dioxide releases from our consumption of fossil fuels.
The earth offers …
… an average of 1,8 hectares, or 1,8 football fields, to each person to live. But we use much more. The average ecological footprint of an individual today is about 2,2 hectares, or 2,2 football fields.
High income countries need more than 6 hectares, low income countries only 0,8 hectares per person.
At the moment it takes the earth 1 year and 5 moths to regenerate, what we use in one year. In other words we need about one and a half planet earths, when we maintain our current lifestyle.
A “fair” footprint
Some countries have big footprints, others small. According to the EU, a fair footprint is, when all people share the existing resources equally.
Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org
It is measured by the amount of global hectares that are affected by humans per capita of the country. Lighter shades denote countries with a lower ecological footprint per capita and darker shaded for countries with a higher ecological footprint per capita.
x = global hectares affected by humans / population
For further information, we recommend Wikipedia or the Global Footprint Network
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