...Name Tutor Course Date Ecological footprint Introduction The planet Earth is the only planet that supports and sustains human life. The human activities carried out on the planet are gradually making the planet unfavorable to live on (Perman 81). Ecology involves the study of relationships between living organisms and their usual natural environment. This paper will define ecological footprint, present a deep understanding of the ecological footprint and show how it applies in measuring the peoples’ effects to the environment. The paper will also explain how the ecological footprint can be used in making choices that go in line with people’s lifestyles. The principles of ecological footprint date back to literatures related to geography, ecology and economics. However, the idea of the earth’s ecological footprint has been present since early 90’s (Wackernagel 35). William Rees in 1992 produced the first academic publication on ecological footprint. The concept of ecological footprint and calculation criteria was later developed by Mathis Wackernagel as a PhD dissertation under the supervision of Rees at British Columbia University in Vancouver. Originally, the concept was called the appropriated carrying capacity. Rees later came up with the ecological footprint term in order to ensure that the concept is accessible. The ecological footprint in the planet has transpired as the earth’s vital gauge of the individual’s demand on the environment and the...
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...First of all I would like to start with how astounded I was that I had an ecological footprint that was that far above the national level. I like to consider myself someone who is very environmentally conscious but I clearly still have some work to do. In today’s society it has become very important that the peripheral nations develop and become economic equals with the rest of the world, and it will definitely be a challenge to make sure that they do it in a way that is environmentally sustainable. This though is very possible as I believe if while they are developing they need to focus on transportation and their sources of energy. It is a widely known fact that transportation (mainly cars) is the main source of CO2 released into the atmosphere and the main cause of air pollution, which contributes to global warming. This is important because when peripheral countries are developing this becomes a priority to make sure that they develop in a sustainable way with the best ways of transportation. While peripheral countries are developing core countries should work with them and stress the importance of the development of hybrid cars and public transportation. This would allow for a large reduction in air pollution as public transit removes a lot of cars from the streets which reduces CO2 emissions. Hybrids would help as they reduce all greenhouse gases from when the car is idling or just sitting at a traffic light. If hybrids are a not successfully introduced a suggestion that...
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...Calculating Ecological Footprints A major reason Bangladesh has a relatively small ecological footprint is that it is a mainly agricultural and fishing nation of generally low income people (Bangladesh.) Thus they consume basically what they can grow and catch. With low income they have little import and export and do not affect the world ecological system as much as nations who have large import and export, such as the United States. The United States on the other hand has a large footprint because it is an industrial country with a high level of income, with the higher level of income there is a much greater demand for goods from other countries. The U.S. is the world’s largest importer and the third largest exporter (World’s 10) having a tremendous impact just in those factors alone. Importing goods means we are affecting other parts of the world by consuming the resources of that particular area. Also, since we are consuming more goods, we also affect the pollution of not only the originating areas but our own, we generate more waste and this waste affects our soil and air. Since we are a country of wealth and power we need to use it to help save our planet for ourselves and future generations, by setting and implementing standards in sustainability. Based on the data in the table, average per capita income does affect ecological footprints but the major factor according to Global Footprint Network, is the nation’s consumption based on adding or subtracting imports...
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...city of our earth. Our ecological footprint already disastrous will become much more detrimental with the staggering population growth.1 Our ecological footprint is largely comprised of three main elements of consumption: food, wood, and land. However, components such as energy consumption also need to be accounted for.2 Food availability, to a great extent, determines the carrying capacity for every population of species. The growth of industrial agriculture has caused a tremendous increase in food production around the world.3 Be that as it may, these practises consist of mechanization and fertilization both of which are dependent on petroleum. The United States uses 12% of its oil intake on food production alone. As the amount of oil in the world begins to decrease, so will the production of food.4 As Thomas Robert Malthus quotes in his An Essay on the Principle of population, “... the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.” 5 Malthus explains that the production of food cannot keep up with the rapidly increasing population.6 Wood consumption includes all the paper, packaging, wood furniture and firewood that we use day after day. 7 This part of the ecological footprint also needs to include the wood products that an individual uses in the systems and organizations that support them. Today, the world’s consumption of wood products, and therefore its ecological impact, is far greater than the carrying capacity of our ...
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...My Ecological Footprint Report Introduction The objective of the Ecological Footprint (EF) Calculator has allowed me to calculate overall impact on natural resources and to explore opportunities for changing my current lifestyle choices. It has also made me understanding of the linkages between environment, economy, society, and inter and intra-generational equity that relate each other. As our economy is generated by the goods and services developed from natural, social, built/financial capitals, this calculator highlights me the importance of how my daily decision-making can effect largely on the environment and my consumption is overtaken the ability of the earth to sustain inter and intra generations' life cycles. We including humans and other species have only one planet on the earth to survive well. Currently we have an ecological overshoot of human demands on natural assets which have exceeded the Earth's regenerative capacity. (Global Footprint Network, 2012) There are needs for precautions and remedial actions on increased consumptions over natural capital given by the planet's limited natural resources and ecological degradation. To avoid this upcoming effects, we all have our own individual's responsibility to reduce our impact and go GREEN from small to big chances which require our daily informed choices, planning, management, strategy and investment. Moreover, we should set realistic reduction targets and meet them for inter and intra-generations. The report...
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...ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT Mohammad Khanbashi Managing for Sustainability In 2007, the Earth’s people used about 50% more natural resources than the planet could regenerate.1 A measure of the impact humans have on the environment is called an ecological footprint. A country’s ecological footprint is the sum of all the cropland, grazing land, forest and fishing grounds required to produce the food, fiber and timber it consumes, to absorb the wastes emitted when it uses energy and to provide space for infrastructure. WWF’s Living Planet Report 2010 found that in 2007 the global ecological footprint was 18 billion hectares. This means that the Earth’s people needed 18 billion hectares of productive land in order to provide each and every person with the resources they required to support their lifestyle 1 . Living Planet Report, WWF, GFN and ZSL, 2010 and to absorb the wastes they produced. The bad news is that there were only 11.9 billion global hectares available. In Australia, we’re consuming more than three times our fair share of the planet’s natural resources. If we continue these consumption patterns, we will face an ecological overshoot that will have far-reaching future consequences for people and nature. Australians have one of the largest environmental footprints per capita in the world, requiring 6.8 global hectares per person. If all people consumed the Earth’s resources the way that we do in Australia, it would take the resources of more...
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... Dhurim Gjureci The Measure of Ecological Footprint in Hopes to Reduce Human Consumption on the Earths Resources To: Benjamin Bradshaw GEOG*2210 (DE) S14 Environment and Resources From: Dhurim Gjureci 0678764 Thursday, July 17, 2014 The Measure of Ecological Footprint in Hopes to Reduce Human Consumption on the Earths Resources 1 GEOG 2210 S14 Dhurim Gjureci The Measure of Ecological Footprint in Hopes to Reduce Human Consumption on the Earths Resources By: Dhurim Gjureci Table of Contents What is Ecological Footprint? How is Ecological Footprint Measured? The Current State of the Earth Canada’s Ecological Footprint The Importance of Knowing Our Ecological Footprint Reduction Efforts Conclusion Bibliography...
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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...
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...services you purchase? After got more information about nature resources, I think I have bad habits for using the goods. Before that, I usually throw the paper which I did not use the both side of it. And I always buy something which I do not have to buy it in supermarket. When I learned this class, I need to change some bad habits in my daily life. If everyone can do some activities for protect the nature resources, the world will be better. 3. How would your ecological footprint be different if you lived in a less industrialized country? If I live in a less industrialized, the market will have less kinds of products. And the number of cars on the road will less than developed countries. Also, I will buy bus or just walk to a place, it will protect the environment better. The purchasing will lower that others. So it will affect the ecological footprint. 4. How would your ecological footprint be different if you ate a vegetarian diet or a vegan diet? 5. How would your ecological footprint be different if you ate a lot more beef at every meal?...
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...Spain or Google Inc. be required to remove the personal data relating to him, so that it no longer appeared in the search results. EU Court of Justice on 23rd May 2014 declared: • On the territoriality of EU rules: Even if the physical server of a company processing data is located outside Europe, EU rules apply to search engine operators. • On the applicability of EU data protection rules to a search engine: Search engines are controllers of personal data. Google can therefore not escape its responsibilities before European law. • On the “Right to be Forgotten” : Individuals have the right - under certain conditions - to ask search engines to remove links with personal information about them. Ecological Footprint The Ecological Footprint measures how much biologically productive land and water area is required to provide the resources consumed and absorb the wastes generated by a human population, taking into account prevailing technology. The annual production of biologically provided resources is...
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...Carbon Footprint versus Ecological Footprint The term carbon footprint refers to the whole set of green house gases or emissions caused by an event, an organization, a person, or even a person. However, this definition requires a vast amount of data which takes forever to collect. As a result, this renders it impracticable, and experts have to look for a definition they can be able to work with. The most accepted definition of the carbon footprint defines the term as the entirety of the amount of methane and carbon dioxide gases produced by a defined population, activity or system, putting into consideration all the sinks, storage and sources within the temporal and spatial boundaries of either the population, activity or system. Greenhouse gases, which are made up of mostly carbon dioxide and methane gas can be emitted during activities such as land clearance, transport using means which use fossil fuels as a source of energy, production and subsequent of fuels, foods, manufactured goods, material, and building roads and buildings. The carbon blue print of a nation, an individual or that of an organization can be determined by undertaking an assessment of greenhouse gas emission. Once the footprint’s size is known, measures can be used to try and reduce it. Some of the measures taken by individuals, nations and organization to reduce their carbon footprint include carbon offsetting, technological improvements, and better product and process management. The ecological footprint...
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... In the article, An urban metabolism and ecological footprint assessment of Metro Vancouver (2013), Moore, Kissinger, and Rees present extensive data regarding urban metabolism analysis (UMA) of residential consumption and ecological footprint analysis (EFA) of the Metro Vancouver region for the year 2006. The authors first collect Metro Vancouver’s urban metabolism data from local and provincial government, and provincially owned corporations and include: Metro Vancouver reports, Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority reports, Province of British Columbia reports, as well as BC Hydro reports (Moore et al, 2013, p. 54). The authors then collect Metro Vancouver’s ecological footprint estimates, in global average hectares (gha), of the ecosystem area required on a continuous basis by the region’s population to produce the products and carbon emissions in which it produces (p. 54). The third figure accompanying the article (p. 57), which summarizes the urban metabolism and ecological footprint of Metro Vancouver for 2006 (p. 56), indicates that water represents the largest material flow through Metro Vancouver of 424,860,000 m3, but has the smallest ecological footprint of 34,550 gha (p. 57). The results on figure three (p. 57) also display that food (1,753,000 tonnes) contributes the largest component to the ecological footprint of 4,514,400 gha (p. 57). The authors determine that Metro Vancouver’s total ecological footprint in 2006 is equivalent to 10,054,400 gha, which...
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...Assignment I Carbon and Water Footprint Report Sustainable Buildings Research Centre at the University of Wollongong Name | UOW ID | Kazi Swad Abdullah | 5220683 | Sherin John | 4806670 | Samir Bastola | 4739218 | Sanju Kunjammattil Babu | 4873622 | table of contents 1. Executive Summary………………………………………………………………….…3 2. Introduction………………………………………………………....................................3 3. Description of Problem…………………………………………………………...……3 4. Method - Carbon Footprint.…………………….…...…............…........…….…………..4 5. Method - Water Footprint………...………………….................….……......…………...4 6. Assumptions…………………..………….............…..........……………………………..5 7. Limits………………………………………………………………………..…………5 8. Results - Carbon Footprint………...………………............………........……………..…6 9. Results - Water Footprint………………………………………………………………6 10. Discussion of Footprint Indicators………………...………...………………………….7 11. Comparison of Footprint Indicators……………………………………………….…...7 12. Conclusion & Recommendations………………………………………………………8 13. References…………………………………………………………....................……….9 14. Appendices.......................................................................................................….........................10 Executive Summary The ecological footprint of the SBRC building at the University of Wollongong was investigated; this includes investigating the water and the carbon footprint of the building. A complete...
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...No: 15 B Tech. Mechatronics Environmental Issues and Concern in UAE The UAE is in the midst of several initiatives aimed at tackling some of the biggest environmental issues facing the country. According to a 2010 report by the World Wildlife Fund, the UAE was rated number one in the world for having the biggest ecological footprint. The ecological footprint is a measure of a country’s sustainability that compares the use of natural resources per person per capita, which is expressed by a unit of bio-productive land called the ‘global hectare’. A committee of scientists and experts was set up in order to study in detail the methods of energy consumption in the country and determine how they can be improved. This made the UAE the third country in the world to develop the ‘Ecological Footprint Initiative’ after Switzerland and Japan. Since then, the footprint per person in the UAE has gone down from 9.5 gha in 2010 to 8.4 in 2012. However, the UAE is aiming to lower this number even further still. The UAE’s 2030 plan involves reducing carbon emissions city-wide by 40 per cent. After seeing that houses account for over three-quarters of the UAE’s carbon footprint, the beginning of 2013 saw a number of regulation modifications which improved the standard of lighting equipment being used in UAE homes. The initiative taken to install water and electricity meters in people’s homes aimed to allow people to change their behaviour towards the environment and to think twice about excessive...
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...Assignment 2: Review of Personal Ecological Footprint Part 1: Introduction: I have chosen to attempt to reduce my waste for a monthly period from the 5th of February. I have chosen waste over travel as I believe this is the more practical of the two for me as I don’t drive and I will not be flying this month, also in assignment number 1 the waste component of my ecological footprint was significantly bad at 0.239 gha/tonne. Plus, in my Ecological Footprint in Assignment one it is clear that I am not using my recycling bin effectively, Landfill is much higher, from the figures calculated and it can be highlighted that general waste is at 0.124 (gha/tonnes) whilst recycling is at 0.102 (gha/tonnes). In this review of assignment one I hope to reduce my waste that goes to landfill, thus increasing the amount that goes to recycling. The bin company we are with is called “Clean Ireland” as explained in assignment number one: “Clean Ireland Recycling’s mission is to conserve resources and reduce waste by encouraging the efficient use of materials, developing and promoting source reduction and reuse strategies and integrating these strategies with recycling.” (Clean Ireland, 2009.) It supplies a general waste bin (personal items, non-recyclable items), a recycling bin (paper, cardboard, plastic, tins, etc.) and a compost waste bin (garden clippings, cooked and raw food, wet toilet paper, egg shells, teabags, etc.). This is called the three bin system. They also...
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