Your Ecological Footprint

1. Your Ecological Footprint Page 530 #1a, 1b, #3a, 3b, 3c, #5, #6

2. 1a) What is an ecological footprint? Measure of total human impact on an ecosystem by determining the amount of biologically productive land and water required to support that person and to dispose of his/her waste.

3. 1b) Describe how to calculate an ecological footprint. • The ecological footprint estimates the amount of land (in hectares) necessary to support an individual’s lifestyle by calculating the land needed to provide for that individual’s; Food, fibre and timber use, Energy use, and Built-up land use.

4. 3a) Define sustainability. Sustainability is an approach to development that meets the needs of the present without negatively affecting the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

5. 3b) Name two factors that contribute to the load that a population puts on the environment. Load = Size of Population x Rate of Consumption The stress placed on an ecosystem equals the population using that ecosystem multiplied by the amount of resources each individual uses. If a small population uses few resources then load is small (tribal hunter-gatherer societies). If a population is large and uses many resources then load is large (North American lifestyle).

6. 3c) How do the factors mentioned in the answer to question 3b) contribute to the problem of achieving sustainability in the future? As the world’s population continues to grow (past 6.5 billion already) their will be an increased load on the global ecosystem. At the same time, more humans are trying to live with more luxuries (which use resources in an unsustainable way). As a result the load on the global ecosystem will continue to grow unless humans develop and adopt a plan for sustainable resource use.

7. 5) Look at Fig. 39-6. Consider the point on this graph where the earth’s carrying capacity starts to decline and the population drops. What kinds of events would indicate the occurrence of these two conditions? Humans will have used up most of the easily accessible resources. International relations will be more difficult as competition for remaining resources increases (Wars). Increasingly difficult to respond to, and recover from, Natural Disasters. Drought will result in more deaths since there will be little surplus food to send to the affected areas. Diseases outbreaks (epidemics and pandemics) will claim more lives. As resources are harder to access, everything will get more expensive and it will be harder to maintain standards of living.

8. 6) Describe how you might reduce any five EF values, either in terms of how you live now or the lifestyle choices you will make as an independent adult. 101 Ways to Green Your Life Below are 101 Ways to Green Your Life. Most of them are pretty simple. Some of them are free, some cost a little money, and some might cost a lot of money. Hopefully you’re already doing a lot of them. http://www.greenstylemag.com/blog/?p=394 • Buy organic food • By local products • Use reusable containers to bring lunch to work • Buy fair trade coffee, chocolate and other products • Compost your food scraps • Skip the bottled water • Eat less meat • Adjust your refrigerator and freezer temperatures • Bring your own grocery bag to the supermarket • Buy unpackaged produce instead of prepackaged

9. (Statistics Canada, Regional Geography of Canada 4th ed.) PF; Jan 2011