Ecological footprint: the impact of a person, city, or country on the ecology of a local area or the whole planet. It is a measure of how much land and.

Ecological footprint: the impact of a person, city, or country on the ecology of a local area or the whole planet. It is a measure of how much land and water a person, city or country needs and the wastes that are produced.

Developed by KZN advisors

We do not know what the carrying capacity of the world is. The United Nations has predicted a

global human population of over 10 billion people by 2050 – therefore an estimated 4

billion people will be added to the population in the next 40 years.

One approach to estimate the carrying capacity of the earth is to look at the ecological footprint

of different groups of humans.


• According to the Global Footprint Network, humanity uses the equivalent of 1.3 planets to provide the amount of resources we consume and absorb the waste we produce. This means it now takes the Earth one year and four months to regenerate what we deplete in a year.


To calculate the ecological footprint of a population all their needs need to be taken into account, e.g. food, water, fuel, building materials, clothing and

medical care. The impact, to produce the needs, on the environment is then calculated. An ecological footprint represents the area of land and water

utilised by a particular nation. It takes into account the resources used by wastes produced by that country. It measures how much land an water a human population requires to produce what it

consumes, and to absorb its wastes using current technology. It compares human demand with the

earth’s capacity to regenerate Developed by KZN advisors

In 2006, the global ecological footprint outpaced the Earth’s biological capacity by 30 percent. This trend is increasing. In fact, on September 23rd of this year, we passed “Overshoot Day,” the day the human ecological footprint exceeded the Earth’s biocapacity and began living beyond its ecological means. Since then, we have been engaged in the ecological equivalent of deficit spending: our rate of resource consumption is exceeding the rate at which those resources can be naturally replenished.


http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/glossary/#overshoot

What are we doing?


Activity 3:Use the next two slide to complete the table:

Greater ecological footprint than South Africa

Similar ecological footprint to South Africa

Smaller ecological footprint than South Africa

Australia Ethiopia India


The effect of high population growth on the environment. The darker the colour, the greater the ecological footprints.


Reckless consumption is depleting the world’s natural capital to a point where we are endangering our future prosperity. The Living Planet Index shows that over the past 35 years along the Earth’s wildlife populations have declined by a third. Yet our demands to continue to escalate, driven by the relentless growth in human population and in individual consumption. Our global footprint now exceeds the world’s capacity to regenerate by about 30%. If our demands on the planet continue at the same rate, by the mid-2030s we will need the equivalent of two planets to maintain our lifestyles. The ecological credit crunch is a global challenge. The Living Planet Report 2008 tells us that more than three quarters of the world’s people live in nations that are ecological debtors—their national consumption has outstripped their country’s biocapacity. Thus, most of us are propping up our current lifestyles, and our economic growth, by drawing (and increasingly overdrawing) upon the ecological capital of other parts of the world.


The following categories affect your ecological footprint:


Ecological “footprint" for different countries



What can you do to save the world?


Sustainable: careful use of natural and human resources so that they will also be available to future generationsConservation: the management of the Earth’s resources so that it yields the greatest sustainable benefit to future generations while maintaining its potential to meet the needs of future generations


Ecological footprint: the impact of a person, city, or country on the ecology of a local area or the whole planet. It is a measure of how much land and.

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