A New Look at the Ecological Footprint

Development of Ecological Footprint to an Essential Economic and Political Tool (17 page pdf, Hans P. Aubauer, Sustainability, Apr. 12, 2011)

The concept of a single measure of sustainability, the basis for the Ecological Footprint, is analyzed in the article reviewed today. The various deficiencies are addressed by combining the EF with three other indices with good results for planning the future.



Key Quotes:

“the four criteria of sustainability:

1. Anthropogenic material flows must not exceed the local assimilation capacity and should be smaller than natural fluctuations in geogenic flows.
2. Anthropogenic material flows must not alter either the quality or the quantity of global material cycles and their natural buffer stocks.
3. Renewable resources can only be extracted at a rate that does not exceed the local fertility.
4. The natural variety of species and landscapes must be sustained or improved"

“the concept of the Ecological Footprint can be developed by incorporating the six procedures:

• operating within the boundaries of the sustainable local yields of the biologically productive soil and water areas, without any input of non-renewable resources, particularly fossil fuels
• taking spatial variations of this yield into account;
• considering only sustainable CO2 -sinks;
• including every exploitation of nature, for instance all material flows;
• taking care of intertemporal effects and depletion;
• preserving the natural habitats necessary for the survival of biodiversity, bearing the species/area relationship in mind”

“the EF has some serious deficiencies:

*he forest areas assumed for carbon sequestration in the EF cannot store the CO 2 permanently and finally emit it into the atmosphere again

*The renewable biomass output of a square meter of bioproductive area, used in the EF, is not an output of this area alone. It includes the input of non-renewable resources..which do not come from this area, and are added to it from lithosphere stocks

*The EF also does not take into account future yield reductions or yield changes due to changes in land use.

“it was decided in this paper to combine the EF with three other indicators ―Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production ―Environmentally-weighted Material Consumption and ―Land and Ecosystem Accounts

“an indicator of just resource distribution between and within generations, and a benchmark for decision-making between alternative types of consumption, life-styles and economic policies, results”

Related articles

• The Impact of Cities on the Environment (pollutionfreecities.blogspot.com)
• Are Our Assumptions About Ecological Footprint Statistics Backwards? (treehugger.com)
• Ecological Footprints of MEDCs and LEDCs Pg.197 (mohamedbennis.wordpress.com)
• My footprint on the world (sciencegirlinottawa.wordpress.com)
• Metrics hand in hand with responsible decision making. (adamsmary.wordpress.com)
• Our Children's Earth (mymodernmet.com)
• How to Calculate Your Carbon Footprint (spottybanana.com)
• Immigration and the Green Party (ledbulbsandlights.wordpress.com)
• Population Growth and Ecological Footprint - It's About Equity, Environment & Preventing Collapse (treehugger.com)