Category:Ecological Footprint

Developed by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees in the mid-1990s, an ecological footprint is defined as

“…the land (and water) area that would be required to support a defined human population 
and material standard indefinitely.”

Population size and material standard are the two critical variables in the ecological footprint equation; these variables profoundly affect an ecosystem’s ability to support a human community in a sustainable manner. Defining an ecological footprint in physical terms has facilitated the development of ecological footprint calculators used to determine the total land area ‘consumed’ to support a given community living at a given material standard (more information on EF calculators is available at www.footprintnetwork.org).

Calculating footprint size is a powerfully persuasive exercise as it provides a quantitative reference of a human community’s impacts on an ecosystem. Consider that the ecological footprints of most Western World communities are so large that, if every human community on the planet lived in a similar manner, multiple planets would be required to supply the necessary resources to support them. In other words, our current approach is already unsustainable – lifestyle changes are critical for the future ecological sustainability of Ontario communities.

The EF also introduces basic principles of ecology into the realm of human community sustainability. This includes the consideration of carrying capacity – defined as the “maximum population size of a given species that an area can support without reducing its ability to support the same species in the future.” Closely associated with carrying capacity is the concept of overshoot – “growth beyond an area’s carrying capacity, leading to crash.” EFs reinforce the limits to growth and the importance of living within an environment’s ecological carrying capacity in order to avoid ecosystem crash. Ecological footprints also emphasize the fact that humans are an integral part of – not separate from – the ecosystems in which they live.