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Ecological footprint
Ecological footprint
Ecological footprint essay
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The ecological footprint is a mathematical tool that was developed by Doctor Mathis Wackernagel and Professor William Rees in 1992 to calculate how many hectares of land or acres of land are required to support one human being. Humans use up the planets’ natural resources to survive on a daily basis. These resources include fish, forests, land, water, and other agricultural products. In an aspect, we can think of humans as parasites to the planet Earth because it is our host and we need its resources to survive. Within the means of the ecological footprint, we want to look closely as the production of Earth’s resources, against the consumption rate of the human race. We can think of the ecological foot print analysis as an approach to a global …show more content…
As previously established, the ecological foot print is a measure in hectares of how much land is required to support someone’s means of life. You can calculate the ecological foot print in two ways, one as a whole for a country, or as an individual. There are two common calculation methods for the ecological foot print analysis: the component based calculation and the compound calculation. Component based calculation builds up the total ecological foot print through an item by item approach, but the compound based calculation starts from the overall consumption balance. It takes into account the carrying capacity for an ecosystem, and how many people can use up the land in that ecosystem to survive at a decent level. Another source provides the actual mathematical equation for the ecological foot print analysis: “EF= P/YN*YF*EQF, where P is the amount of a product harvested or waste emitted, YN is the national average yield for P, YF is the yield factor, and EQF is the equivalence factor”, (Zakari, R., Zolfagharian, S., Nourbakhsh, M., Zin, R. M., & Gheisari, M. (2012)). The carrying capacity of the human race is the maximum rate of resource consumption and waste production. To determine the total ecological footprint as a whole, we add up all the mutually exclusive zones of land use: pasture land, agricultural
Generational conflicts, political strife, environmental regulations, stakeholders in big oil, and many more hurdles affect the push to fully sustainable economies around the world and even here in America. In a world where coal, oil, and natural gas are limited, countries are gobbling it all up as fast as they can before other poorer countries come on the grid. Even though America and other countries gobble up these resources the life of the people is still a struggle to meet basic needs. Sustainability is an intermingling of resource use and protection of the “quality of life”, it is met by using resources sparingly and by recycling or reducing the use of other non-renewable resources to provide for our immediate need, but also to conserve and protect the needs of the next generation and to improve the quality of all the lives to come.
A personal ecological footprint, also known as an eco-footprint, is the demand that an individual person puts on the Earth’s natural resources; such as land, ocean, and the waste that the individual produces. A person’s consumption of the Earth’s resources and how that individual impacts the earth help to create a personal eco-footprint calculation. At http://myfootprint.org/, I calculated my personal ecological footprint and discovered my impact on the Earth’s resources and its ecosystem. The ecological footprint quiz results were that if everyone on the planet lived my lifestyle we would need 3.86 Earth’s to sustain the world’s population.
Ecological theory is a theory developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner that states that the “systems” around you are vitally important in human development. Within the theory there are many systems including the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. Each system is defined by a different aspect of a person’s surroundings that would affect their development. The systems begin with the aspect that is closest to you, your day-to-day life. The Microsystem includes all of the places, people, and experiences that are found in your daily life. These include school, work, parents. friends, neighbors, and so forth. The next most impactful system is the exosystem. The mesosystem is defined by two entities within your microsysytem affecting each other. The next system is called the exosystem. The exosystem is full of things that don’t affect you directly but will eventually
Adams, W. M. (1999). Sustainability. In P. Cloke., P. Crang & M. Goodwin (Eds.), Introducing human geographies (pp. 125-130). London: Arnold.
...ms Shrink Our Ecological Footprint." Redefining Progress: For People, Nature, and The Economy 1 (2003). https://blackboard.syr.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_3_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_285766_1%26url%3D (accessed March 26, 2014).
Ashlee Doyon Second Response Paper (Redo) Environmental Identity What is environmental identity? "Environmental identity, is how one views oneself in relation to the natural world. Environmental identity is part of the way in which one forms his/her self-concept and a sense of connection to some part of the nonhuman natural environment, based on personal history, emotional attachment, and/or similarity.
There is no doubt that human activity is having a significant impact on our environment. These environmental impacts include depleting our natural resources, air and water pollution, climate change, destruction of habitats, and loss of biodiversity. Because of these growing concerns, we need to learn how to live sustainably. Living sustainably will allow us to conserve our limited resources more wisely so they will be available for future generations (Withgott & Brennan, 2011, Chapter 1).
Carbon footprint can be defined as the amount of greenhouse gases an individual produces at a time through diverse activities. A person’s carbon footprint is the sum of all emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), which were induced by an individual’s daily activities for a given time frame. CO2 is one of the many greenhouse gases that are responsible for causing global warming which we are currently experiencing today. Carbon footprint is an extremely powerful tool which we can utilize to understand the impact that our personal activities have on global warming.
Human Impact on the Environment Introduction = == == == ==
Every day the world around us is changing ever so slightly in many different ways. Humans can affect the environment through our day to day lifestyle without even noticing the change. An ecological footprint is a measurement of how much a person uses the environment around them to live their life. This given measurement can help one to see their impact on the earth. It is an important tool to understand what actually a human does to change the habitat near them. My ecological footprint results gave me a perspective of how my daily life can impact the world I live in, as well as, how I as an individual can change my actions to make less waste on earth. It is also useful for each person to know their own ecological footprint since no one live
“Thus sustainable development can only be pursued if population size and growth are in harmony with the changing productive potential of the ecosystem (p.
Carbon dioxide is the most common greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. Scientists have seen a measurable increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in recent decades. There is considerable consensus within the scientific community that this increase is due largely to human activity. Actions such as driving long distances to work, taking frequent flights, and living in a large home can lead to large amounts of carbon dioxide emissions. One way of measuring these emissions is through carbon footprints. A carbon footprint is an individual’s aggregate carbon emissions across various aspects of their life. Once an individual can see quantitatively the size of their carbon footprint, and compare these results to peer, national,
However, one of the reasons that humans still carry out certain activities that continue to pose a threat to the environment such as deforestation is mainly for agricultural purpose, which is responsible for feeding the world’s 7.2 billion population. In that case, global warming will still remain as a growing t...
Social ecology observes humans as the main cause of the destroyed earth, by overpopulating it. The world is made up of numerous people, with different races and religions, it’s because of the bad habits men and women have created which have lead to a polluted earth (Carlson, Felton, 2001). Mur...
The degradation of ecosystems and loss of biodiversity is increasing at an alarming rate every year. Humans are certainly not the only reason for this, but they are the main contributors. The well-being of ecosystems affects our everyday lives - consumption and consumerism depend on natural resources. Everything humans use is derived from them, in seemingly indirect and direct ways. Yet despite the fact that humans are destroying the environment, many continue to and neglect to take important measures to protect it.