Ecological Footprint Hypothetical area of land

required by a society, group or individual to

fulfil all their resource needs and assimilate all
wastes.
Act as a model for monitoring
environmental impact.
Allow for direct comparisons between
groups and individuals, such as
comparing LEDCs and MEDCs
Ecological
Footprint
can be increased
by:
Highlight
sustainable
and unsustainable
- Greater
reliance
on
fossil
fuels
lifestyles
- Increased use of technology, and therefore energy but tech. can also
reduce footprint
- High levels of imported resources = Have high transport costs
- Large per capita production of carbon waste (ex: high energy use)
- Large per capita consumption of food
- A meat-rich diet
Ecological Footprint can be reduced by:
- Reduce amounts of resources used
3.8
- Recycling resources
Environmental
- Reusing resources
Demands of
- Improving efficiency of resource use
Human
- Reducing amount of pollution produced
- Transporting waste to other countries to deal with
- Using and Improve tech. to increase carrying capacity (ex: GM crops)
- Importing more resources from other countries
- Reduce population to reduce resource use
- Using tech. to intensify land use