Global Footprint Network

Transcription

Hi Alex here. What is our ecological footprint? Today I'm going to use illustration to explain what it is and how we fit our planet so let's get drawing This is what we need to provide the resources we use and to absorb the waste we produce 1.5 planets. So that means that it takes about a year and a half for our planet to regenerate what we use in a year. The Global Footprint Network calculates every year Earth overshoot day and in 2013 it was on August 19th that was the day when we finished using our resources for the year so think about as a bank account for the first 7 months and 20 days we lived on our annual revenue after that we spent our capital Hmmm seems like there's something wrong with that math. Our ecological footprint measures how much land and water area we need to produce the resources we use things like a energy, food, land for settlements, timber, seafood and to absorb the waste we generate Our biocapacity is the amount of biologically productive area that is available to provide the resources we use and to absorb the waste so we can compare footprint and biocapacity to see if we are well balanced or not So let's dig into that a little. I live in Canada and our ecological footprint in 2007 that was published in 2010 was 7.01 meaning that to provide what we consume every year we need 7.01 global hectares per person but we live in a huge country and our biocapacity was actually 14.92 global hectares per person so if we do the math the difference was 7.91 which means that technically we are an ecological creditor country Does that mean that it's OK to consume as much as we do? Well not really if the whole world lived like us we would need more than 4 planets to produce the resources we use and to absorb the waste because not every nation has so much land such huge forests and so many other natural resources The United States has a footprint of 8 and a biocapacity of 3.87 so the difference is -4.13 so they are big ecological debtor country. This is actually the case of most developed countries Among with smaller footprints is the Democratic Republic of the Congo with 0.75 although it's not an economically rich country at all it has a biocapacity of 2.76 so you see that it's also a ecological creditor country with the different of 2.01 The Global Footprint Network published the footprints in low, middle, and high-income countries between 1961 and 2008. This is the world's average biocapacity What do you notice? Yes it is systematically decreasing so basically the story reads the wealthier people are the bigger their footprint. When we can afford it it's hard to resist I guess And this is also confirmed by the fact that 17 percent of the world's population consumes 80 percent of the world's resources so the main problem is not the absolute lack of resources it's the fact that our global consumption is extremely uneven an inefficient. These were footprints for nations but you can also measure the ecological footprint of an individual, a city, a business or all of humanity to assess our pressure on the planet So I calculated my own ecological footprint on the Global Footprint Network website and it is about 5.5 so why is it significantly less than Canada's footprint of seven? Well mostly thanks to my life style I rarely eat meat, I drive very little, I live in a highly energy efficient house et cetera. So you can go and calculate your own personal footprint if you like I included the link in the description below. So the ecological footprint is a really useful way of understanding our relationship to the planet and how the ways in which we live impact our ability to survive and thrive as a race over time so try it you may find it interesting. As usual here are the key points to keep in mind humanity uses more resources than the Earth provides the main problem is not the absolute lack of resources it's the fact that or global consumption is unevenly distributed that it favours only a few and that is also extremely inefficient and the ecological footprint is a great tool to assess the pressure that we put on the planet basically it helps us keep the big picture in mind and not get lost in the details so in the next video we'll use this ecological footprint combined with a few other things to create a powerful metaphor that describes our sustainability challenges So stay tuned and thank you for watching