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Our
Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth,
by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees.
The ecological footprint is a tool for measuring the resources
required to sustain certain lifestyles, in terms of use
and waste. Basically, the tool tries to describe what is
needed to live sustainably with our planet, and not surprisingly
we are far from that goal. The typical footprint of someone
living in North America (Canada, USA) is higher than someone
living in India. This is definitely not shocking information,
as most people understand the differences between the lifestyles
of the two places. But the tool shows that the footprint
of the former is over ten times the size of the latter.
More importantly the tool illustrates that the increased
acreage required for a first-world existence is borrowed
from other locations, as the acres required for American
lifestyles is greater than the acreage of the country. In
other words, places like India are necessary in order for
modern lifestyles to even take place, otherwise we would
need additional planets for survival (three for everybody
to live at North American levels, according to the authors).
The fact that many locations are borrowing resources from
other parts of the world is most evident in terms of non-renewable
resources like oil, though renewable resources like wood
also come into play. For a group of people (neighborhood,
city, region, country) to not borrow from other locales
it can change in numerous ways: its transportation needs,
its residential and commercial energy use in buildings,
its eating habits, etc. What the footprint allows is for
each of these potential changes to be measured, indicating
what the best (and most realistic) steps may be. Many footprint
calculators
exist online that work at the individual level, obviously
the best place to start.
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