1. By Mrs. Shaw

2.  What do you think the term “ecological footprint” means?  After you are done answering this please start organizing your notebook for the notebook check on Thursday

3.  The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems.  It is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet's ecological capacity to regenerate.  In short, it is the measure of how fast we are using up our natural resources (land, fuel, trees, water) with a prediction of how long the resources will last based on this rate.

4.  It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to supply the resources a human population consumes, and to assimilate associated waste.  Using this assessment, it is possible to estimate how much of the Earth(or how many planet Earths) it would take to support humanity if everybody followed a given lifestyle.

5.  For 2007, humanity's total ecological footprint was estimated at 1.5 planet Earths; that is, humanity uses ecological services 1.5 times as quickly as Earth can renew them.  Every year, this number is recalculated to incorporate the three-year lag due to the time it takes for the United Nations to collect and publish statistics and relevant research.

6.  The Ecological Footprint is a resource accounting tool used by governments, businesses, educational institutions and NGOs to answer a specific resource question: ◦ How fast are we using up our natural resources?  A carbon footprint is a subset of the ecological footprint.

7.  Explain how you felt after watching the video “The Human Footprint” yesterday about our impact on the Earth’s resources.  An introduction to ecological footprinting  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXXbAXG 4zwA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXXbAXG 4zwA

8.  http://teachersites.schoolworld.com/webpag es/KShaw2/environmental.cfm?subpage=177 4863 http://teachersites.schoolworld.com/webpag es/KShaw2/environmental.cfm?subpage=177 4863

9.  How would buying less affect our resources? Your life?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmyYpW W8GeU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmyYpW W8GeU