Class 3 - Ecological Footprints

Today’s class will explain the
concept of ecological
footprints, which is used to
measure the impact of
countries and individuals on the
environment….
© Cengage Learning 2015
Countries Differ in Their Resource Use
and Environmental Impact
Economic growth = increase
in output of a nation’s goods
and services
• Usually measured in GDP:
annual market value of all
goods and services
produced by all businesses,
foreign and domestic,
operating within a country
• Per capita GDP =
GDP/population

Countries Differ in Their Resource Use
and Environmental Impact (cont’d.)
• Economic development
– Goal: using economic growth to raise living
standards
• More-developed countries
– United States, Australia, the Gulf States, Japan,
Taiwan and most European countries
– Less-developed countries: most countries in
Africa, Latin America, and south and central Asia
• More developed countries use up more of the
world’s resources than less developed countries
Countries or territories by GDP (nominal) per capita in 2022 (blue/green =
wealthy countries; yellow = middle income countries; red = less developed
countries)
Ecological Footprints: Our
Environmental Impacts (cont’d.)
Ecological footprint = the amount of

biologically productive land and water needed
to:
• Provide the people in a region with indefinite
supply of renewable resources, and to
• Absorb and recycle wastes and pollution
Per capita ecological footprint = the average
ecological footprint of an individual in a given
country or area.
If a country’s (or the world’s) total ecological footprint is larger than its
biological capacity to replenish its renewable resources and absorb the
resulting wastes and pollution, it is said to have an ecological deficit.
It is living unsustainably by depleting its natural capital.
https://data.footprintnetwork.org/?_ga=2.152986111.718223939.1661750650-
1431845698.1661750650#/

• The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Global

Footprint Network have estimated that humanity’s
global ecological footprint now exceeds the earth’s
ecological capacity to support humans and other
forms of life indefinitely by 30% to 50% and is
projected to grow.
• According to the WWF, we need at least the
equivalent of almost 1.5 earths to provide an
endless supply of renewable resources at their
current average use per person and to dispose of
the resulting pollution and wastes indefinitely
How Are Our Ecological Footprints
Affecting the Earth?
• Environmental
degradation (natural
capital degradation):
wasting, depleting, and
degrading the earth’s
natural capital
• E.g. species are
becoming extinct at
least 100 times faster
than in pre-human
times
Natural Capital Degradation
Degradation of Normally Renewable Natural Resources
Shrinking
Climate forests
change
Decreased
wildlife
Air pollution habitats
Species
extinction
Soil erosion
Water
pollution
Declining ocean
fisheries
Aquifer
depletion
Stepped Art
Fig. 1-5
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
• In 2005, the UN released its Millennium

Ecosystem Assessment.
• According to this 4-year study by 1,360
experts from 95 countries, human
activities have degraded about 60% of
the earth’s natural or ecosystem
services mostly since 1950.

Cultural Changes Can Grow or Shrink
Our Ecological Footprints
Major cultural changes
• Agricultural revolution (10,000-12,000 years
ago)
• Industrial–medical revolution (c. 275 years ago)
• Information–globalization revolution (50 years
ago)
• Sustainability revolution?
What impact have these changes had on our
ecological footprints?
Cultural Changes Can Grow or Shrink
Our Ecological Footprints
• Each of these cultural changes gave us more energy and new
technologies with which to alter and control more of the
planet’s resources to meet our basic needs and increasing
wants.
• They also allowed expansion of the human population, mostly
because of larger food supplies and longer life spans.
• In addition, they each resulted in greater resource use,
pollution, and environmental degradation
• On the other hand, some technological leaps have enabled us
to begin shrinking our ecological footprints by reducing our use
of energy and matter resources and our production of wastes
and pollution.
Case Study: China’s New Affluent
Consumers
• 1.4 billion affluent consumers in the world
• 700 million of them in China
• China has the world’s second-largest population and second-
largest economy.
• Rapid shift from agrarian to industrial, globalized economy
• Between 2010 and 2025, China expects to build 10 cities the
size of New York City.

Case Study: China’s New Affluent
Consumers
• Leading consumer of various products
– Wheat, rice, and meat
– Coal, fertilizer, steel, cement, and oil
• Two-thirds of the most polluted cities are in
China
• Polluted rivers, coastline, air
• 1.5 billion people expected by 2025
– Will require two-thirds of the world’s current
grain harvest

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Today’s class will explain the

© Cengage Learning 2015

Ecological footprint = the amount of

It is living unsustainably by depleting its natural capital.

© Cengage Learning 2015

• The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Global

• In 2005, the UN released its Millennium

© Cengage Learning 2015

© Cengage Learning 2015

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