Ecological Footprint Summary

Jackson Cline

Mr.Butera

AP Environmental P.6

Sept. 8 2014

Ecological Footprint Summary

From the web activity I learned more about ecological footprint. The definition of a Ecological footprints is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. In all essence we all have a effect and demand on the environment and its resources. Eventually we will hit a thing called the tipping point and that's when our world won't be able to support us anymore. As of currently we as a world need about 2.5 earths to support us.

As countries we all make our own Ecological footprint, The United States itself is well over our biocapacity. Biocapacity in definition is the biological capacity of an ecosystem dependent on its production of resources and materials. All graph are also measured in Global Hectares per capita which is the report of both the biocapacity of the earth and the demand on the biocapacity in measurement of per person.
Here is a picture of the American Footprint:

Compared to the U.S, Japan isn't doing so well themselves with them being well over their biocapacity considering their on a small island. Although they're have a smaller Ecological footprint than the U.S's their biocapacity is a lot smaller than the U.S.
Here is a picture of Japan's Footprint:

Both the U.S and Japan are of course developed countries but what might the Footprint of a developing country look like? For an example we'll use Bolivia and find out their Footprint. Unlike the U.S and Japan Bolivia's Ecological Footprint is much less than the two. An Ecological Footprint is also dependent on the government's economy and how much the country produces. As can be seen in the graph their biocapacity is falling at a pretty fast rate, but why? Although their Footprint is pretty small their population takes a great role in the falling rate of their biocapacity, because of their massive population they need more resources so they use up their own resources.


Here is a graph of Bolivia's Footprint:

Comparing the three countries together you can get an idea that even though developed countries don't have a very large population they still require a lot of materials to live the lifestyles they live, and that even though developing countries don't produce that much, they require a lot of resources because of their population.

Links to sources:
http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/glossary/
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http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/trends/united_states_of_america/
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http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/trends/japan/
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http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/trends/bolivia/
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http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/world_footprint/