What is Ecological Footprint? | Sustainable Development
Keywords: Ecological footprint, Supply, Demand, thermal power, hydropower units, Carbon footprint, landfills, air pollution, Biocapacity, Biologically Efficient Place, Energy ecological footprint.
Written By: Nikhat Parveen
What is the ecological footprint?
An Environmental/Ecological footprint takes into account the entirety of the supply as well as demand of goods and services for the planet. In doing so, it is assumed that the entire population follows a certain lifestyle characterised by a group of people.
Costs to the Ecology
Energy consumed by households for cooking, heating and cooling comes from Thermal and Hydropower units, through long and costly transmission lines. The impact on air quality is cumulatively enormous owing to the petrol/diesel fuel emissions. Using enormous quantities of non-degradable plastics and waste results in the need for large landfills for dumping that waste. The amount of waste generated is unimaginable.
The Large environmental Footprint must be made smaller. While our small handprint (positive actions for the environment) must be made larger for sustainable development to occur.
We use paper, wood products and non-timber forest resources to manufacture all sorts of goods that lead to deforestation. We use an enormous quantity of water in everyday life, much of it is carelessly wasted and polluted. Can our earth support this high environmental footprint that we are leaving behind every day? 7.8 billion people on earth?
| Country | Ecological Footprint ( global hectares ) |
| China | 5,200, 000, 000 |
| USA | 2, 670, 000, 000 |
| India | 1, 450, 000, 000 |
The Earth has limited natural resources. Water, air, soil, minerals, oil, forest products etc., are all a part of our life-support systems. One cannot imagine life itself without any of these.
Effects of Carbon footprint
Our carbon footprint incurs a negative impact on the atmosphere in multiple ways. Foremost, it is the prime reason for human-induced climate change. It also contributes to air pollution, cyanogenic acid rain, coastal and ocean acidification, and melting of glaciers and polar ice.
It should be noted that ecological footprints can be counterbalanced with the aid of using biocapacity. Refers to the potential of a biologically efficient vicinity to constantly generate renewable sources and smooth up its wastes. A vicinity is taken into consideration as unsustainable if a land’s ecological footprint is more than its biocapacity.
Ecological footprints and carbon footprints are each approaches to measuring something’s effect on the environment.
Biologically Efficient Place
The Ecological Footprint measures human call for nature, i.e., the amount of nature it takes to assist the human system. It tracks this call via an ecological accounting system. The money owed compares the Biologically Efficient Place used for intake to the same expected to exist in a vicinity (biocapacity). In short, it’s the dependence of the human financial system on herbal capital. The ecological footprint is accounted because the biologically efficient place has to provide for a lot of human use. These include vegetables, fish, wood, fibres, absorption of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels as well as area for homes and roads.
Biocapacity is the efficient place which could regenerate what humans call for from nature. Both footprint and biocapacity may be compared on an individual, regional, countrywide or international scale. Both footprint and biocapacity ex-trade with a lot of humans, in procedures of intake, the performance of manufacturing, and productivity of ecosystems. Also the calculations have questioned the sustainability and fairness of contemporary intake and manufacturing practices.
Global Footprint Network
The Global Footprint Network – is a non-profit organisation that calculates the per capita global footprint. It is partnered with hundreds of cities, businesses, and other entities to advance the Ecological Footprint as a metric of sustainability
Ecological Footprint analyses if a country is within its biocapacity or an ecological “capital” for the rest of the world. Also it can vary greatly within countries according to the level of affluence.
Ecological Footprint for Sustainable development
Environmental Educators and Activists have used the Ecological Footprint to raise awareness of unsustainable consumption patterns. Often done for encouraging a change in lifestyles but less to promote awareness of wider structural forces driving such patterns. Many Online footprint calculators have appeared on non-governmental organisation websites with such goals in mind. These allow people to calculate their ecological footprint as well as make comparisons with estimates of available biocapacity globally.
Despite its rapid ascent and widespread use, the Ecological Footprint has faced a wide range of criticism. One of the Ecological footprint’s attractions is that it provides a single aggregate indicator of ecological Impacts.
Through depletion, generation and assimilation as well as use of services from nature, each individual, process, and region affect the planet. Energy ecological footprint is the demand for obtainable energy in an exceedingly specific area and time. It may be a part of the ecological footprint, that is a life of sustainability.
Energy represents a capability that may be utilised in making the products as well as services that are necessary for humanity. With this respect, the human carrying capacity within the world is taken into account. The rate of resource harvest and waste generation can be sustained without impairing the productivity of ecosystems, humans are apart.
The energy ecological footprint as an element of the ecological footprint is extremely vital. This is owing to its dynamic idea that permits process ecosystems at the world scale. Further, sans energy, other parts of the ecosystem will cease functioning, which represents the dynamic force for the method of life.
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This write-up is edited by S
