How Big is Your Ecological Footprint?

It has been ten years since the book, Our Ecological Footprint was published by UBC professor William Rees and Mathis Wackernagel. The book introduced the concept of ecological footprint analysis, described by Rees in an interview, "Pick a population, examine its consumption patterns for a considerable period of time, and then calculate the total area of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems needed to produce all the goods and services that the population consumes, and to assimilate the wastes that the population produces" (Aurora Online). The analysis methods have been carefully refined over the years and produce a fairly accurate estimate of the amount of land required to produce and dispose of the goods used by a region or an individual.

If the researcher's calculations are correct, there are less than two hectares of productive land and water available for each person on the planet. The inhabitants of some nations get by on that amount or less, but many countries have much larger footprints - Canadians average nearly 8 hectares, US residents average over 10. Clearly if we don't change the way we live, we are going to need a few more planets. As the developing world aspires to attain the comfort level of developed nations, more and more area is consumed, degrading the natural ecology.

Ecological footprint analysis has inspired people all over the planet to look at ways to reduce their own eco-footprints. Some countries use the analysis to make policy decisions. Many of the changes required to achieve a sustainable and equitable global economy have to occur at the personal level. Several ideas on ways that an individual can reduce his/her ecological footprint have been discussed. Some ideas can be found in the links below.

• How big is your ecological footprint? from The London Free Press


• Don't put your foot in it from the Telegraph UK - Education


• William E. Rees Dr. Rees' personal page at the School of Community and Regional Planning, UBC


• Ecological Footprint Quiz an online quiz to assess your personal ecological footprint from the Earth Day Network


• William Rees an interview with Dr. Rees, in 2000, by Dr. Michael Gismondi of Athabasca University from Aurora Online


• Our Ecological Footprint: When Consumption Does Violence, text of a presentation by Dr. William Rees to the Environment Canada Policy Research Seminar Series


• Neighborhood Ecological Footprint a look at the ecological footprint from a neighbourhood perspective from the Heartland All Species Project in Missouri

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 1:51 PM on January 30, 2006

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