Chapter 39 questions and answers ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT.

Chapter 39 questions and answers

ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

1. Define: ecological footprint, carrying capacity, sustainability, fair earthshare, ecological overshoot, industrial revolution, productive land.• Ecological Footprint – measure of total human impact on ecosystem.• Carry Capacity - # of peops supported at current standard of living by Can’s productive land.• Sustainability – development meets current needs without depleting resources for future generations.• Fair earthshare – measurement of world’s productive land divided by # world population. Amount of world’s productive land each person would be entitled to if all of land was shared equally.• Ecological overshoot –the amt. of resources we demand that is beyond the Earth’s supply.• Productive land – land that is available to support a person’s activities and used to measure a person’s EF.

• Industrial Revolution – a time in England 1700’s when water power and steam was introduced into factories which increased the size and output of industries.

2. What land and water does the EF represent and why?

• Many small pieces of land and water all over the world b/c people use resources from all over the world and create waste close to home and far away.

3. What is the average EF for one average Canadian? What does this represent?

• 6.45 hectares of land which represents the amt. of productive land needed to support the lifestyle of an average Canadian.

4. Give examples of parts of your ecological footprint that would be located in your community, in a nearby part of Canada, in a distant part of Canada, in a foreign country.

community Nearby in Can Distant Can Foreign country

Chudleigh’s-apples

Toronto -Blue Jays game

Alberta- beef China-jeans

Springridge farm-strawberries

Waterloo –RIM-blackberry

PEI-lobster India-t shirt

5. How much productive land would all the people of Canada need? 6.4 (EF)x 32 300 000 (Canada’s population).

• 206 720 000 hectares of land.

6.Does Canada have enough productive land to support our current population? Canada has about 434 477 000 hectares of productive land. Compare this number to your answer in question 6, and then determine the surplus of deficit of productive land.

Productive land available

Productive land needed

Surplus or deficit?

434 477 000 206 720 000 surplus

7. What is Canada’s carry capacity? Divide the total amount of productive land by 6.4 hectares. How many people can Canada support?

• 434 477 000 / 6.4 = 67 887 031.1

• (if the growth rate remained at 0.8%) according to rule of 70 and doubling time in 87 years according to the 2016 population prediction Canada’s population in 2103 would be 72 987 800.

• Canada’s productive land could not support it’s population!

8. What other factors affect Canada’s carrying capacity?

• Exporting of resources – eg) energy, seafood, water. If we export our resources we are limiting our carrying capacity.

9. Looking at figure 39.6 and reading page 527, do dot jots to describe the carrying capacity of Earth.• C capacity only increased slightly over last 2 centuries b/c found new uses for resources. Uranium for electricity.• See increase in stress world pop. puts on earth b/c increased #’s pop. = increased consumption.• Today world is in ecological overshoot causing global warming, loss of topsoil, shortage of fresh water, destruction of forests, loss of fish, depletion of ozone layer.•World can operate in overshoot for a bit longer by using up it’s supply of non renewable resources, and then what?• Carrying capacity will decrease, as non renewable resources are used up and pop. will drop when there are no more resources to support it.

10. Read Living Today and Planning for Tomorrow. What are the environmental challenges that the world community faces?

• Lack of fresh water by 2025.• Extinction of 60% of Can. Wildlife due to construction of mining, forestry roads and homes.• Depletion of non renewable nrg resources.• Global warming caused changes to coral reefs, polar regions, forests, weather and agriculture.• ecological overshoot.

11. What 4 principles is UNESCO’s Decade of Education for Sustainable Development based on?• 1. Respect and care for community living• 2. Ecological integrity• 3. Social and economic justice• 4. Democracy, non violence and peace.

12. How can you contribute to meeting these goals?