SUSTAINABILITY AND THE ENVIRONMENT ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINTS

CALCULATING ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINTS It is measured in ………….. or ………………. Calculates the amount of the earth’s bioproductive space is needed to keep a population at its current level of resource consumption Takes into account …………….. land ……………… ………………… needs ……………………costs ………………….. extinction

GLOBAL AND NATIONAL TRENDS Planets biocapacity is ………….hectares per person Some countries are over …………… hectares per person This results in a deficit of …………..hectares person Shown by failing ecosystems, soil degradation, climate change

Humanity's demand for resources is now outstripping supply by about 25%, as the growth of our ecological footprint shows. Meanwhile the health of the planet's ecosystems, measured by the living planet index, is falling, at "a rate unprecedented in human history," according to the WWF.

Biocapacity affected by …………………………. (which is increasing) With current population rates the ecological footprint available is reduced to …….. hectares if current consumption rates continue then we would need ………. planets to sustain the world population

USA has the largest per capita footprint- ………… hectares With these rates of consumption the planets biocapacity could only support ………..billion people Bangladesh has a per capita footprint of ……….. hectares With these rates of consumption the planet could support …………….billion people!

UK USA Graphs track the per-person resource demand (Ecological Footprint) and resource supply (Biocapacity). Biocapacity varies each year with ecosystem management, agricultural practices (such as fertilizer use and irrigation), ecosystem degradation, and weather CHINA

GERMANY NETHERLANDS NIGERIA SPAIN

NEW ZEALAND FINLAND LAOS

Global ecological footprint grew from ……… Global ecological footprint grew from ……….% of the planet’s biological capacity in 1961 to ………..% in 1999. Predictions show that this trend to rise to ………………..% of the earth’s biological capacity by 2050