Module 9 Consumer education - APCEIU

2.1 to just under 1.8 hectares.
Even though the average footprint of humanity is 5.5 acres per
person, it still exceeds the eco-capacity of the biosphere. If we put
aside a meager 12% for the other species, then we exceed the
Earth's capacity by 20%. Ecologists call this transgression of the
Earth's carrying capacity 'overshoot.' In other words, humanity
consumes more than what nature can regenerate and is eating up the
globe's stock of natural capital. The sustainability challenge then
becomes: 'how can each of us have a satisfying life within the
average of 1.8 hectares per person or less' This is probably the
most significant question we face in research, business and politics.
How Is The Footprint Calculated
The ecological footprint is an accounting tool that aggregates human
impact on the biosphere into one number: the bioproductive space
occupied exclusively by a given human activity. It does this by adding
up human uses of ecological services in a way that is consistent with
thermodynamic and ecological principles. For example, it recognizes
the ecological interactions of ecological functions by only adding up
mutually exclusive functions of nature such as food production or
CO2 sequestration. Or it incorporates thermodynamic thinking by
distinguishing between energy qualities and differentiating between
abilities of ecological spaces to produce biomass. Since the method
builds on the assumption that the limiting factor for human life on
this planet is the regenerative capacity of the biosphere, the
accounts capture human use of nature in as far as it impacts this
capacity. This means that the use of non-renewable resources such as
oil or copper ores is incorporated into footprint assessments to the
extent that it limits nature's integrity and productivity.
Among a variety of compatible methods to calculate people's
footprints, there are two basic approaches - compound footprinting
or component-based footprinting. Depending on the size of the
population, we can choose between the two or use a hybrid of both to
get the most accurate and useful results.