Sustainability & Ecological Footprints

Ecological Footprint

                       

         

The land and water area that is needed to support the material standard of living of a given human population, using current technology indefinitely

How Big is an Acre?• One acre is equivalent to:

– 200 parked cars – 43,560 square feet – 640 acres in a square mile – about a third of a soccer field

• which is between 90 and 120 m (100 and 130 yard) long and between 45 and 90 m (50 and 100 yard) wide (2.67 acres)

– three quarters of an American football field

• which is 160 feet (48.5 m) wide and 360 feet (109.1 m) long (1.32 acres). When you take away the two 30-foot-long end zones at each end, an acre is 91% of the field.

This 12.5 acre parcel of land in Orange County, CA is on sale for

$57,000,000

Ecological Footprints

• The amount of ecologically productive land used by individuals, cities, countries, etc.

• Production and use of goods and services involve land use: have ecological footprints

Ecological Footprints

• Consumed Land– Built

environment

Ecological Footprints

• Farm Land– Food

production

Ecological Footprints

• Forest Land– forest

products• Wood for

homes• Paper• furniture

Transportation Footprints

• If one person travels 5 kilometers twice each workday: – Bicycle: 122 sq meters– Buses : 301 sq meters– Cars: 1,442 sq meters

Agricultural Footprints

• Open Field production of tomatoes takes up more land than greenhouse production

• But Greenhouse production has a much larger ecological footprint (10-20x)– Energy– Fertilizer– Other inputs

Urban Footprints

• Imagine New York City covered by a bubble like Biosphere II in Arizona

• Most people would die within a few days

• Cities depend on much greater amount of land, than is available.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970408.html

Urban Footprints

• Now imagine how big that bubble would have to be for the city to be self-sustaining

• This is the ecological footprint of the city

• It takes 347,000 square miles – size of Texas and

Oklahoma combined.

National Footprints• Holland population 15 million• Density = 395 people per

kilometer• Consumption is less than in U.S.• Still, Dutch people require 15x

more land than is within their country for– Food– Forest Products– Energy Use

• Therefore, the ecosystems that support Holland lie far beyond their national borders

Current per person Ecological Footprints

• US – 23.2 acres

• World – 6.7 acres

• Biologically productive land per person in the world – 5.2 acres

• Ecological deficit – 1.5 acres

• Source: Global Footprint Network - 2005

National Footprints• Therefore, if everybody were to adopt the U.S.

consumptive style, we would need 5.3 planets

SOURCE: World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Living Planet Report 2000, Gland, Switzerland: 2000, and Redefining Progress.

Inequity

• We all compete for an ecologically overloaded world.

• Excess consumption by affluent countries takes up the ecological footprint that would be used by poorer nations.

http://www.thesavvytraveller.com/agraphics/insights/geography/1general/photoessays/dalusio_menzel/material_world.jpg

Resource Distribution

– Imagine if four people landed on an island and they divided up the land into 4 equal sections

– Is it fair for one of those people to claim ¾ of the land, forcing the other 3 to live off of ¼ of the land?

The wealthiest 25% of the world uses 75% of the world’s resources

Consumption of ResourcesAverage per person, 1991

Type of consumption

Canada USA India World

Vehicles per 100 persons

46 57 0.2 10

Paper con-sumption (in kg/yr)

247 317 2 44

Fossil energy use (in gigajoules/yr)

250 287 5 45

Fresh Water Withdrawl (in m3/yr)

1,688 1,868 612 644

Comparison of population and carbon emissions

• China 21.1% 13.3%• India 16.5 3.8• USA 4.6 22.9• Indonesia 3.5 0.9• Brazil 2.8 1.0• Russia 2.6 7.2• Japan 2.2 5.0

Share of World Population Share of World Carbon Emissions1996 1995

Source: Worldwatch Institute, 1997

Radios & Televisions per 1,000 people 1992

Radios and TV’s are used both for communication and for amusement.

How many does one person or household need?

How do these national averages compare to the number of radios and TV’s in your own community?

radios TVsCambodia 112 8China 182 31India 80 37Italy 791 421Liberia 226 18Mali 44 1Mexico 255 149USA 2118 815Source: UNICEF, State of

the World’s Children 1996

Can everyone live like we do?

• No. – There is not enough earth to

support it

• Thus all poor countries cannot follow the miracle of developed countries

• Someone must bear the ecological burden of consumption by the affluent

• Our continued over-consumption hits the poor hardest

A sustainable world is….

• “A world in which human populations can continue to exist indefinitely with a high standard of living and health. In a sustainable world, habitats would be preserved and garbage would be turned into harmless substances. Nonrenewable resources would be used sparingly and efficiently and renewable resources would be used no faster than they could be replaced so there would always be enough for generations that follow”

Definition of SustainableAny action or process that can be continued

indefinitely without depleting any of the material or energy resources required to keep it running.

1st principle of Ecosystem Sustainability

• All resources come from nature and all wastes are recycled

2nd Principle of Ecosystem Sustainability

• Ecosystems use sunlight as their source of energy

3rd Principle of Ecosystem Sustainability

• The size of consumer populations is maintained so that overgrazing or other overuse does not occur.

4th Principle of Ecosystem Sustainability

• Biodiversity* is maintained.

*Biodiversity is the number and variety of living organisms in an area *