Sustainability Determined by Ecological Footprinting
Submitted by: Wade David Quinn II
Submitted: March 3, 2014
Biology 112
Lab Day: Tuesday 2:15 (Regina Cozzi)
Ecological footprinting is the process of measuring human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. This is measured with respect to the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to supply the resources a human population consumes, as well as to discard the waste which is produced. Ecological footprinting has recently been developed into a process by which humanity can predict the sustainability of our planet, and to help develop steps in order to be more environmentally responsible. With greater knowledge about the effects of ecological footprints, it is possible to maintain a more sustainable planet.
The Ecological Footprint of an individual is calculated by considering all of the biological resources consumed and all of the carbon dioxide emissions generated by that individual in a given year. These resources and emissions are then individually translated into an equivalent number of global hectares. To accomplish this conversion into hectares, the amount of resources consumed by that person (tons per year) is divided by the yield of the specific land or sea area (annual tons per hectare) from which it was harvested, or where its waste material was absorbed. The number of hectares that result from this calculation are then converted to global hectares using yield and equivalence factors (Van den Bergh and Verbruggen 1999). Sustainability in our environment is a simple concept; it is based on the relationship between the consumption and renewal of our planet’s resources. A sustainable environment is when the resources of an environment are replenished faster than they are depleted (Wackernagel, Schulz, Deumling, Linares, Jenkins, Kapos, and Randers 2002). Humans are currently exploiting the world’s resources much faster than they are being renewed, and this has created an unsustainable environment on our planet. In order to avoid completely depleting our planet’s resources, we must take several crucial steps in reducing our ecological footprints. The main objective to reduce ecological footprints is to minimize carbon dioxide outputs as a society. It is possible to reduce carbon outputs in many ways, including: using more fuel efficient vehicles, eating less red meat that comes from harvested livestock, and
