What is an ecological footprint?
Q: What is an ecological footprint?
A: An ecological footprint measures how much people take from nature, which is then compared to the amount of natural resources that nature can renew.
Q: What does the ecological footprint take into account?
A: The ecological footprint takes into account how much farm land, forest area, grazing land, and sea area it takes to provide everything people use.
Q: What questions do footprint calculations answer?
A: Footprint calculations answer the questions: how much nature do we have? And how much do we use?
Q: How fast is humanity using nature compared to how fast nature renews itself?
A: When analyzing the world as a whole, humanity is using nature about 1.7 times faster than nature renews itself.
Q: What would it take if everybody around the world consumed like a particular population?
A: It is possible to calculate how many planet it would take if everybody around the world consumed like a particular population. For instance, if everybody consumed like the Germans, it would take nearly 3 planet Earths.
Q: What is the ecological footprint per world citizen?
A: The ecological footprint per world citizen is about 2.8 global average hectares per person.
Q: How does humanity live in terms of global biocapacity?
A: Humanity has already overshot global biocapacity by 70% and now lives unsustainably by depleting stocks of "natural capital".
