October 11, 2018
by Lisa DiCaprio, Conservation Chair, Sierra Club NYC Group
How many planets would be required if everyone in the world lived according to our lifestyle?
We can answer this question by measuring our Ecological Footprint. Follow the instructions on the Global Footprint Network website.
Measure your ecological footprint again. What changes can you make to reduce your Ecological Footprint by one or more planets? How are your lifestyle choices shaped by urban policies, such as green building design, zoning and land use, renewable energy, recycling and mass transit?
Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees outlined the concept of Ecological Footprint in 1990 and co-authored Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth (New Society Publishers, 1996). Wackernagel is the current president of the Global Footprint Network, which provides data and tools for calculating the Ecological Footprint of individuals, cities, countries and institutions, such as businesses and government agencies.
The Global Footprint Network defines an Ecological Footprint as: “A measure of how much area of biologically productive land and water an individual, population or activity requires to produce all the resources it consumes and to absorb the waste it generates, using prevailing technology and resource management practices. The Ecological Footprint is usually measured in global hectares. Because trade is global, an individual or country’s Footprint includes land or sea from all over the world. Without further specification, Ecological Footprint generally refers to the Ecological Footprint of consumption...” (Note: a hectare is 2.47 acres.)
The three kinds of biologically productive land and water areas (biocapacity) that comprise the Ecological Footprint are used for (1) crops, grazing, forests and the built environment, (2) fishing grounds and (3) ecosystems for absorbing waste, such as greenhouse gas emissions.
Resources provided on the Global Footprint Network website include:
- An overview of the Ecological Footprint concept
- A glossary of key terms
- FAQs on Ecological Footprints
- Why the Ecological Footprint is the most comprehensive climate metric available
Planetary Boundaries and One Planet Living
For several decades, our consumption has exceeded the planet’s capacity to regenerate natural resources and has disrupted ecosystem services, such as the carbon and hydrological cycles. This imbalance is called ecological overshoot.
The Global Footprint Network annually commemorates Earth Overshoot Day, which “marks the date when we (all of humanity) have used more from nature than our planet can renew in the entire year. In 2018, it fell in August. We are using 1.7 Earths. We use more ecological resources and services than nature can regenerate through overfishing, overharvesting forests and emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than ecosystems can absorb.”
For resources on planetary boundaries and one planet living, see:
- Big Question: Is Earth Past the Tipping Point?
- The 2009 film Home, the story of our human footprint on the planet.
- Mathis Wackernagel, 2016 TEDx San Francisco, “How Much Nature Do We Have? How Much Do We Use?”
- The Stockholm Resiliency Centre website outlines nine planetary boundaries: stratospheric ozone depletion; loss of biosphere integrity (biodiversity loss and extinctions); chemical pollution and the release of novel entities; climate change; ocean acidification; freshwater consumption and the global hydrological cycle; land system change; nitrogen and phosphorus flows to the biosphere and oceans; and atmospheric aerosol loading.
- Johan Rockström, the executive director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, 2010 TEDGlobal, “Let the environment guide our development.”
- Johan Rockström and Mattias Klum, Big World, Small Planet: Abundance within Planetary Boundaries (Yale University Press, 2015).
- John Carey, “The 9 limits of our planet . . . and how we’ve raced past 4 of them,” Ideas.Ted.Com, March 5, 2015.
- Welcome to the Anthropocene, the new geological age in which our human (anthropogenic) activity is determining the fate of our planet.
- The Ten Principles of One Planet Living: zero carbon; zero waste; sustainable transport; sustainable materials; local and sustainable food; sustainable water; land use and wildlife; culture and community; equity and local economy; and health and happiness.
- The Architectural League’s Five Thousand Pound Life educational initiative.
- Josh Katz and Jennifer Daniel, “What You Can Do About Climate Change,” The New York Times, December 2, 2015.
- Livia Albeck-Ripka, “How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint,” The New York Times, April 22, 2018 (Note: This article in the A Year of Living Better series is only available to subscribers of The New York Times.)
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