Ecological footprint what is it

By Alane Lim Alane Lim. Learn about our editorial process. Share Twitter Pinterest Email. Environment Weather Outdoors Conservation. It calculates how much of the environment is needed to sustain a particular lifestyle.

The ecological footprint can be calculated for different populations, including individuals, cities, regions, countries, or the entire planet. You can even calculate your personal ecological footprint. What Is Climate Sensitivity? Definition and Examples. Organic Farming: History, Timeline, and Impact. Green Revolution: History, Technologies, and Impact.

Understanding Agroecosystems: Examples and Outlook. What Is Greener? Boat vs. Plane Emissions. What Does Organic Really Mean? Food and Farming Practices. How do we live? What do we eat? How do we get around? Our daily way of life has a huge impact on our planet. Calculate your carbon footprint. The simplest way to define ecological footprint would be to call it the impact of human activities measured in terms of the area of biologically productive land and water required to produce the goods consumed and to assimilate the wastes generated.

More simply, it is the amount of the environment necessary to produce the goods and services necessary to support a particular lifestyle. What is Ecological Footprint? Together with Redefining Progress, it measures how much is needed to produce the resources we consume and dispose of our waste. EF: A measure of sustainability An interesting way to look at ecological footprint is how much nations consume versus how much they actually have.

These offices report the data to international agencies, including the United Nations, that distribute this information in consistent formats for most countries in the world. Global Footprint Network, which calculates the Ecological Footprint for more than countries , gets the data from these international offices and applies them to its comprehensive accounting database to calculate how many resources each country consumes.

Learn more about the Ecological Footprint.