Ecological Footprint

(Retrieved July 23, 2011 from http://felix.openflows.com/node/155)

Tracking the Ecological Overshoot of the Human Economy

This article shares the knowledge and research of a group of academic professionals who have utilized existing data to track the human demand on the environment. In order to compile the data needed for this brief yet detailed and scientific study, they build on a multitude of earlier attempts to measure the impact of humans on the biosphere.  The study takes a very detailed look at six human activities that require biologically productive space. They are:

“(i) growing crops for food, animal feed, fiber, oil, and rubber; (ii) grazing animals for meat, hides, wool, and milk; (iii) harvesting timber for wood, fiber, and fuel; (iv) marine and freshwater fishing; (v) accommodating infrastructure for housing, transportation, industrial production and hydro-electric power; (vi) burning fossil fuel (p. 9267).

The study takes these six activities and “for each year since 1961, compares humanity’s demand for natural capital to the earth’s biological productivity” (p. 9268). Although mathematical in design, each activity is broken down providing transparency in calculating the human demand and existing capacity as well as advising where information has not been well documented. All estimates and calculations have been intentionally modest, so as not to dissuade the reader from an objective eye. The over-arching purpose of this article is not just to measure the load that humans put on the environment, but moreover to provide “a tool for measuring the potential effect of remedial policies” towards sustainability and technology issues (p. 9269).

Link to the PDF of this article:

http://www.pnas.org/content/99/14/9266.full.pdf

Wackernagel et al. (2002). Tracking the ecological overshoot of the human economy.

PNAS, 99(14), 9266-9271.