Our report on last issue's Footprint Quiz tells you how well you're doing.
by Norberto Rodriquez dela Vega
The Ecological Footprint concept was developed at the University of BC by Dr. William Rees and Dr. Mathis Wackernagel in 1995. It is a representation of how much of the Earth's biologically productive land is required to produce the food we consume, the wood to build our houses, to give room for infrastructure (roads, services and installations), and to assimilate our wastes.
Introduction
The world's Ecological Footprint changes in relation to global population size, average consumption per individual, and the resource intensity of the technology used. People may think the most populated countries in the world will have the largest Ecological Footprint, but this is not the case. The five countries with the largest footprints are the USA, Australia, Canada, Singapore and New Zealand.
To understand the impact of the size of our Ecological Footprint we need to know how much land space is available for us to use. This is called available capacity.
Available capacity
The average amount of land that exists in the world per person is 4.7 acres. This amount of land is required to produce food and wood, to give room for infrastructure, and to absorb the CO2 emissions associated with energy use.
The available capacity of land is estimated by dividing the amount of biologically productive land in the world (31.1 billion acres) by the total population (6 billion). The rough distribution is as follows:
- 0.6 acres of crop land–land that produces all the plant products we consume, and those we feed to livestock.
- 1.9 acres of grazing land.
- 1.4 acres of forests–land required to produce all the wood products we consume, from fire wood to paper.
- 1.3 acres of productive ocean coast areas–required to produce the marine fish and seafood products we consume–plus an additional 25% to allow for bycatch, which is generally discarded back to the sea.
- 0.07 acres for built-up areas, required for human settlements and roads.
These five categories give us a total of 5. 3 acres per person. From this number, we should leave 12% of undisturbed space for other species (according to the World Commission on Environment and Development), resulting in 4.7 acres of available capacity per person.
With projected population growth of up to 10 billion by 2040, the available capacity will drop to about 2.8 acres.
In the majority of the responses, the primary factor for a heavier footprint is housing. We Canadians are always hungry for larger homes, with lots of stuff and toys to enjoy. The second factor is transportation. SUVs and luxury cars, for the most part status symbols, add unnecessarily to pollution levels.
The available capacity in Canada is about 30 acres per person, mainly because of our relatively small population and extensive land. We could even say we do not have a problem. But the reality is completely different, as all countries in the world are now interconnected and interdependent.
Smaller footprints
We must start thinking seriously about reducing ecological footprints in order to become sustainable. The "wait and see" option preferred by the most of us is no longer viable. The following statements are from the 18 Laws of Sustainability compiled by Dr. Albert A. Barlett, Professor Emeritus, Department of Physics, University of Colorado.
First Law: Population growth and/or growth in the rates of consumption of resources cannot be sustained. A population growth rate less than or equal to zero and declining rates of consumption of resources are a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for a sustainable society.
Second Law: In a society with a growing population and/or growing rates of consumption of resources, the larger the population, and / or the larger the rates of consumption of resources, the more difficult it will be to transform the society to the condition of sustainability.
Fifth Law: Sustainability re quires that the size of the population be less than or equal to the carrying capacity of the ecosystem for the desired standard of living.
Seventeenth Law: The addition of the word "sustainable" to our vocabulary, to our reports, programs, and papers, to the names of our academic institutes and research programs, and to our community initiatives, is not sufficient to ensure that our society becomes sustainable."
The terms and concepts of "sustainability" and "sustainable development" have been around for several years. In 1972, Donella Meadows wrote Limits to Growth, introducing the word "sustainable," saying "it is possible to alter the growth trends and to establish a condition of ecological and economic stability that is sustainable far into the future."
In 1987 the World Commission of Environment and Development published Our Common Future, that included a definition of "sustainable development" which is currently the most accepted. It says, "sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
The Earth Summit conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 produced two key documents: Agenda 21, a comprehensive blueprint for action for global sustainable development into the 21st century, and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, which provides a set of principles for sustainable development. These documents were adopted by more than 178 governments to define their strategies and programs towards sustainable development.
Since then, many more conferences have taken place, many commitments, and tons of strategic documents have been produced. Positive actions are happening around the world. And yet, new reports say all natural ecosystems keep declining, while our demands on them keep increasing. One of the main reasons for this situation is that the richest countries in the world, Canada among them, have not kept their commitments and promises. The primary emphasis of governments is still economic growth, rather than sustainable development balance.
The road towards sustainability is a long one. Governments, industries, corporations, communities and individuals all have to make major changes in the way we behave. We have to be creative, find alternatives, new ways, we have to transform ourselves, for our own sake.
How to do it
The primary source for this has been the book Living Planet Report 2000. Government policies are urgently needed to create movement toward sustainability. These policies need to deal with such urgent matters as: farming systems that do not systematically degrade biological capacity; preserving crop lands for agriculture, rather than urban and industrial development: stopping the use of hazardous pesticides and increasing the use of biological controls.
Reduce the world's grazing land footprint by reducing meat and dairy product consumption, maintaining traditional grazing systems that encourage and conserve biodiversity, changing eating habits away from resource-intensive foods, and eliminating export subsidies.
Reduce pressure on forests by establishing a network of ecologically representative protected areas covering at least 10% of each forest type, ensuring forests outside protected areas are well managed according to standards set by the Forest Stewardship Council, stopping illegal logging, developing ecologically and socially appropriate forest restoration programs, reducing forest damage from pollution and climate change, and promoting the recycling and reuse of wood and paper products.
Reduce pressure on fisheries by reducing the incidental killing of unwanted fish and other marine wildlife, eliminating destructive fishing practices, cutting government subsidies that contribute to over fishing, supporting management schemes that protect aboriginal fisheries and local economies, promoting market incentives for sustainable fishing, such as the Marine Stewardship Council, and designating marine protected areas to safeguard marine ecosystems and give depleted fish populations a chance to recover.
Reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions by increasing the use of energy-saving technologies eliminating wasteful energy consumption, increasing the supply of energy from sources which reduce or eliminate pollution, assisting lower-income countries to invest in sustainable energy technologies, and increasing energy prices to cover the full environmental costs.
In your community
- Form a Sustainable Action Team.
- Develop a community vision to guide future development in the community, based on principles of sustainable development.
- Establish a public out reach and education program to increase awareness of sustainable development.
- Establish a mechanism to turn the concepts of sustainable development into practical applications of sustainability in the community.
- Develop action, implementation and measurement plans to go ahead with the established vision.
An individual action guide
From an individual point of view in Canada, the key issue is changing our general behaviour about over consumption. Most people in rural environments seem to have a "natural" understanding of the issues, and many of us are already living in some sort of sustainable way. These are points we all have seen before, but do not necessarily follow.
- Reduce consumption, before you buy anything ask yourself: Do I really need this?
- Reuse and repair, instead of buying new things.
- Recycle, and avoid things that are disposable.
- Rethink, and replace. Think twice before you buy new stuff.
* Suggested reading
- Ecological Footprints of Nations; Mathis Wackernagel, Larry Onisto, Patricia Bello, Alejandro Callejas Linares et al, 1997.
- Living Planet Report 2000; WWF, UNEP, Redefining Progress and Center for Sustainable Studies, 2000.
- Our Ecological Footprint; Mathis Wackernagel, William Rees, New Society Publishers, 1996.
- The Global Living Handbook; Jim Merkel, 1999.
- The Circle of Simplicity; Cecile Andrews, 1997.
- Our Common Future; World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987.
- Reflections on Sustainability, Population Growth, and the Environment; Albert A. Barlett, Renewable Resources Journal, 1997.
- Living within Our Means, The Foundations of Sustainability; Dr. John Robinson and Caroline Van Bers, 1996.
- Believing Cassandra: An Optimist Looks At A Pessimist's World; Alan Atkisson, 1999.
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[From WS December 2000/January 2001]