1. Meeting Ecological challenges
Section 6.4

2. What is an ecological footprint?
Describes the total area of functioning land and water ecosystems need both to provide the resources and individual/population uses and o absorb and make harmless any waste
Take into account energy, food, water, shelter
Allow ecologists to calculate carrying capacity
Can apply to individual countries of the world’s population
No universal way to calculate an ecological footprint

3. Comparing footprints
It is easier to compare than calculate absolute footrpints
The average American’s footrpint is 4 times larger than global average. Is this a good thing?
The per person use of resources is almost twice that of England
Over twice that of Japan
Six times that of china

4. How can ecology guide us to a sustainable future?
Ecology allows us to:
Recognize a problem
Research the cause
Change our behavior to mitigate the effect
3 case studies
Atmospheric Ozone
North Atlantic fishing
Climate change