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Ecological Footprint

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Ecological Footprint
Since the industrial revolution, human’s demand for natural resources is greater than ever. Consumption and waste are extremely high in some countries and this is negatively impacting on our natural environment. If human’s develop the world by destroying the environment, that will not be lasting and sustainable development. We need to find the way to deal with the human development and also preserve the natural resources. The definition of the ‘ecological footprint’ is a way of measuring our impact on the natural environment as a result of our resource use(WWF, n.d). The purpose of this essay is to find out the ecological footprint in different countries and how resources being used and give to my personal suggestions. This essay, will compare the ecological footprint between two countries, Japan which is developed country and China --- developing country.
China consumes 15% of the global biocapacity, and is in the second place in the world but also has the largest population. In 2003, China’s ecological footprint was 1.6(China Ecological Footprint Report, 2012), under the global per capita average of ecological footprint. Carbon footprint occupies half of the whole ecological footprint. From the same year’s figure of The Ecological Footprint Countries (China Ecological Footprint Report, 2012), Japan 4.4 per capita is in the first of Asian countries. Japanese mountain accounted for 73% of total land area, in addition to agricultural land, one percent of the land for ninety percent of the population. It is one of the highest population densities in the world.
China has built its transportation system since 1980s. With the reform and open, many Chinese people have become much richer than before. Therefore, they have changed their way of going out. People prefer motorized travel, whether public transport or private way, non-motorized travel downward trend, such as walking and bicycling. The frequency also increased. As result, China's 2007 CO2 emissions of the transport sector to 436 million tons. It plays an important role in carbon emissions. In Japan, carbon emissions from the transports is about 19 percent of total CO2 emissions but it on a down trend since 2001. It was 267 million tons in 2001, decreased to 246 million tons in 2007. Japan has been striving to reduce transport emission and it gave initial results eventually.
In respect of resource, Japan’s output is limited. But there is a big demand for using. With the support of the government, renewable energy such as solar energy, geothermal energy, natural gas and wing energy have been developed rapidly. Especially solar energy and wind energy. Japan solar power has been widely used. Looking for the solar cell output, produced 1.387 million kW in 2009, about a quarter of the global output and 70% export into overseas, mainly in Europe and America. China is taking considerable steps to shift to a low-carbon growth strategy based on the development of renewable energy sources. Reduce the proportion of non renewable resources use, to develop an energy industry which low carbon, no carbonization(Zhou, 2013). Therefore, some renewable energy resources are currently being used: solar energy, wind energy, hydroelectricity, tidal energy, etc. But the high cost and relative policies are not perfect, the use of renewable energy has affected.
Both China and Japan government pay much attention on resource use and focus on sustainable development. In Japan, garbage classification has become a habit of Japanese daily life. Many Japanese electrical companies made their products use less power to reduce consumption in order to protect the environment. All this is because the government's policy and arrangement. In China, protecting the environment is one of the basic state policies. The government and the people pay high attention to car pollution. There are a few measures taken: to speed up the implementation of the motor vehicle emission standards; half purchase tax on vehicles which displacement under 1.6, encourage people buy small displacement vehicle to control carbon emission.
In conclusion, China's vast territory and all kinds of resources are in front of the world. But export too much and the consumption of large population, China's ecological footprint is not ideal. China is a developing country, many departments and company's pursuit of economic growth but ignore resources saving. Japan is a small country but big population, short of resources. To rely on advanced industrial and imported resources from other countries. As a result, it’s reduced the damage to themselves. At the same time, Japanese is a high sense of crisis, the government has been developing renewable resources for several tens of years. Companies are also paying attention to developing new products to reduce using of energy. Japanese environmental awareness shows all the time in daily life. We want a better world for our future generations, for this desire, everyone should protect our world from the trifle in your life from now on. I think the government should work on a good social environment, let people know the importance of sustainable development, if people notice that, it will be easier to follow relevant government policies.

References:
Fadri, 11 Jun 2012, China Transport, , accessed 20 March 2013, <http://www.chinatravel.com/facts/china-overview/china-transport/>.

The world bank, 18 Aug 2010, 城市交通与二氧化碳排放:中国城市的一些特征(Urban traffic and carbon dioxide emissions: some of the characteristics of the Chinese cities), , accessed 20 March 2013, <http://www.csr-china.net/templates/node/index.aspx?nodeid=0ed932b0-db43-45a9-ad3a-ddb6ac82007f&page=contentpage&contentid=9e6cb490-6813-443e-b4f5-cc1a6277de42>.

Per Capita and Total Carbon Dioxide Emissions, 2005 n.d., , accessed 20 March 2013, <http://www.china-profile.com/data/fig_co2-emissions_3.htm>.

China Transport CO2 Emission Study n.d., , accessed 20 March 2013, <http://www.climatechange.cn/CN/abstract/abstract8872.shtml>.
Ecological Footprint, n.d. WWF, , <http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/teacher_resources/webfieldtrips/ecological_balance/eco_footprint/>.
Japan For Sustainbility, 2013 Tokyo University Researches Impact of Eco-Info Campaign on Peoples' Travel Choices, n.d., accessed 29 March 2013, <http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/032692.html>.
Consumption, Production and Sustainable Development, 2012, China Ecological Footprint Report 2012, n.d., Beijing.
Zhou, X 2013, ‘De-carbonizing China’, Beijing Review, 17 January, accessed 14 January 2013, <http://www.bjreview.com.cn/business/txt/2013-01/14/content_512351_2.htm>.
WWF Report & Global Footprint Network, 2012, Japan Ecological Footprint Report 2012, n.d., n.d.

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