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The Ecological footprint

Explore per capita ecological footprint comparison between countries, reasons for different footprints, and the impact on nature's resources. Learn about biocapacity, criticism of the footprint model, and solutions for a sustainable future.

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The Ecological footprint

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  1. The Ecological footprint

  2. What is it? • Per capita (per human) ecological footprint (EF) is a way of comparing consumption and lifestyles, and compairing it against nature’s ability to provide for this consumption. • The consumption of energy, • Biomass (food, fiber), • Building material, • Water and other resources are converted into a measure of land area called ’global hectares’(gha).

  3. Different footprint sizes • The U.S. : 9.6 gha • Finland: 7.6 gha (four times the capacity)‏ • Belgium: 5.6 gha (over three times the capacity)‏ • Hungary: 3.5 gha • China’s: 1.6 gha • Mozambique: 0.6 gha Notice! In order for the Earth to survive, nobody should have a footprint bigger than 1.8!

  4. Notice that the more developed countries have, in general, bigger footprints.

  5. EU has 7% of the world’s population but uses 17% of the Earth’s natural resources. • EU’s ecological footprint has grown 70% from 1961. • Finland has the 16th largest footprint in the world.

  6. Why does Finland have a big footprint? • Much energy needed for the paper industry • Simple fact of our being one of the developed countries • Long, cold and dark winters and a need to keep homes lit and heated • The large land-area with few people and distance between communities increases the transport distances . ‏

  7. But! The Footprint as a way of comparing is criticized because it doesn’t consider all aspects (biodiversity, trade between rural and urban, nuclear vs. coal etc.)‏ So sometimes having a small footprint isn’t the most important thing. • The Finnish biocapacity (how much our nature can produce) figure is among the world’s highest at 12.0 • The United States, for example, the ecological footprint is 9.6, while biocapacity is less than 5. • China and the Arab emirates are even worse off (because of growing demand).

  8. Graphs on ecological footprints(from footprintnetwork.org)‏ • On graphs, notice the value of y-axis! • Notice what color the lines are! • Notice the year! (1961-2003)‏

  9. Belgium

  10. Finland

  11. Hungary

  12. The World

  13. How bad is the situation? • The WWF claims that the human footprint has exceeded the biocapacity (the available supply of natural resources) of the planet by 20 % • This would mean that we need a new Earth by 2050! (as seen graph)‏ • If everyone lived the lifestyle of the average American we would need five planets.

  14. What needs to be done? • Better eco-efficiency (better technology)‏ • Use of renewable energy sources • We have to only use what we can produce, Otherwise next generation won’t survive!

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