THE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT: Tracking Human Demand on Nature

The human economy is embedded in the By measuring the overall supply of and human Italian lived on a Footprint less than half that size and is entirely dependent on its demand on the ’s regenerative capacity, the (3.8 global hectares or 9 acres). The average ecological services. In consuming nature’s prod- Ecological Footprint provides an indispensable Mexican occupies 2.5 global hectares (6 acres), ucts and services, people have an impact on the tool for tracking progress, setting targets, and the average Indian lives on 0.8 global hectares (2 Earth. But since nature has the ability to renew, driving policies for . acres). Average demand globally is 2.2 hectares it can cope with human demand as long as this per person (5.4 acres). demand stays within the regenerative capacity of the biosphere. In contrast, globally there are currently 1.8 Humanity’s Ecological Footprint Exceeds Earth’s Biological Capacity hectares (4.5 acres) of biologically productive 1.41.4 Ecological Footprint accounting documents the land and sea area available per person. extent to which human economies stay within 1.21.2 Maintenance of also depends on Earth’s ecological capacity the regenerative capacity of the planet, and who 1.01.0 this area. Comparison of supply and demand uses which portion of this capacity. shows that humanity’s Ecological Footprint 0.80.8 Humanity’s total Ecological Footprint exceeds the Earth’s by over 20 per- Such biophysical accounting is possible 0.60.6 cent (2.2ha/1.8ha = 1.2). In other words, it now because and waste flows can be Number of 0.40.4 takes one year and more than two months to tracked, and most of these flows can be associat- regenerate the resources humanity consumes in 0.20.2 ed with the biologically productive areas CO2 portion of humanity’s Ecological Footprint one year. required to maintain them. The Ecological 0.00.0 1961 1965 1971 1975 1981 1985 1991 1995 2001 Footprint of a is the area of The Ecological Footprint can be applied at scales biologically productive land and sea required to from single products to households, organiza- produce the resources this population consumes, Ecological Footprint comparisons of human tions, , regions, nations, and humanity as and to assimilate the wastes it generates, given demand on nature with nature’s regenerative a whole. prevailing technology. Since people use resources capacity are updated each year. Recent calcula- from all over the world and pollute far away tions, published in WWF’s , More on the science behind these Ecological places with their waste, the Ecological Footprint show that the average Australian required over Footprint accounts and examples of how they are includes these areas wherever they happen to be 7.7 global average hectares (or 19 acres) to used to advance sustainability can be found on located on the planet. provide for his or her . The average the website: www.footprintnetwork.org

Global Footprint Network | www.footprintnetwork.org