ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINTS

By Ellen MurrayRosedale Heights School of the Arts, TDSB

ellen1.murray1@gmail.comFor STAO 2010

http://ecological-footprints.wikispaces.com/http://rosedaleenvironmentalscience.wikispaces.com

/

The Three Major Causes of Environmental Destruction

Over consumptionPovertyPopulation

Why teach about Ecological Footprints (EF)?It’s a way to personalize scientific dataAllows to students to connect their lifestyle

choices to the use of Earth’s resourcesOnline EF calculators give students

immediate feedback about how lifestyle choices increase or decrease resource usage

They can quickly see the impact of food, transportation, housing and consumption choices on their EF

What are ecological footprints?“Ecological footprints are an accounting tool that enables us to estimate the resource consumption and waste assimilation requirements of a defined human population in terms of a biologically productive land area.”

Adapted from “Our Ecological Footprint” byMathis Wackernagel and Bill Rees (1995)

18% Biologically Productive Land

11% Deserts, Ice Caps and Barren Land

67% Low-Productivity Ocean

4% Biologically Productive Ocean

Calculating an Ecological Footprint (EF)

EF = land to produce food+ land and water to absorb CO2 waste+ land for housing, buildings and roads+ land to provide for all consumer goods and services

Ecological footprints are measured in hectares

So how big is a hectare?1 hectare = 100 m x 100 m1 hectare = about 1.3 soccer field

How many hectares are available?

Using current EF calculation methods there are about 16 ha of biologically productive land available per person

As population increases, the available per person biologically productive land decreasesAs humans degrade ecosystems, less biologically productive land is available

What is an average Canadian’s EF?Individual Canadians have an

average EF = 70 ha (700,000 m2 or 85 soccer fields)

We have one of the largest ecological footprints worldwide

The available EF land per person = 16 ha

Worldwide the average person has an EF = 23 ha

Ask students to predict how their EF will compare to the Canadian average

Taking the Ecological Footprint QuizStudent preparation requires

Estimated apartment or house size and lot sizeEstimated family incomeEstimated kilometres travelled per year

By car By bus By subway or train By plane

The best ecological footprint calculator is Ecological Footprint Quiz by Redefining Progress http://www.myfootprint.org/

How can we “overuse” resources?

Ecological “Overshoot”According to the WWF Living Planet Report

we are using the Earth’s resources 25% faster than the resources can be renewed

Students Analyse Their EF

Students Research Ways to Lower Their Individual EF

Taking ActionYoung people need positive messagesYES WE CAN fix the environmental problems

we have createdWe can buy less - watch the Story of Stuff by

Annie Leonard onlineStart Ecoschools programsPlant treesWalk and cycle moreWaste less foodWear a sweater

Students Research Biocapacity Availability for Other SpeciesThis discussion has focussed

exclusively on human use of the Earth’s resources

How much of Earth’s resources should be allocated to plants and other animals?

If we continue to decrease biodiversity we will also harm our own species

Students Research Economic and Environmental Relationships

“Old” EF Math vs “New” EF MathThe EF calculation results are often different

depending on the UN data collection year and the calculation method

In 2005, the organization Redefining Progress released a new methodology for calculating EF called EF-NPP

This resulted in a large increase in the results of an ecological footprint calculation

The new method also gave much larger values for Earth’s biologically productive land calculations

“OLD” EFMATHThe old

method was EF-GAEZ

To convert old values to new values multiply by 8.5

Live Well on LessStudies show that the more we consume the

less happy we are

•Attend the 62 annual OSEE conference April 28-30

•At the Seneca Campus, King City

•Wonderful presentations and speakers all focused on environmental issues

•For K-12 teachers in all subject areas

Calculating all the big environmental impact categories Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the broadest indicator and an internationally standardized method (ISO 14040 and

ISO 14044). It not only evaluates the impact on climate change, but also other impact categories such as acidification potential, eutrophication potential, ozone depletion potential, and ground level ozone creation. For each of these impact categories, the product or system is evaluated over its complete life span, from the extraction of raw material and manufacturing, to the use of the product by final consumers and end-of-life processes like recycling, energy recovery, and ultimate waste disposal.

The ISO standards provide robust and practice-proven requirements for performing transparent LCA calculations. Moreover, one can make use of extensive databases containing life cycle profiles of many goods and services, as well as many of the underlying materials, energy resources, transport systems, etc. Nevertheless, LCA calculations remain very complex and should therefore be applied only by professionals and preferably to a specific unit or application, such as a washing machine or a car tire.

Calculating the impact on climate change A Carbon Footprint, also called Carbon Profile, is an LCA with the analysis limited to emissions that have an effect on

climate change (carbon dioxide, methane, etc.). This limitation makes it easier to apply the calculation to integrated systems, such as an entire house or automobile.

Comparing with the amount of land needed The Ecological Footprint of an activity tries to measure its consumption of natural resources and the amount of

biologically productive land and sea needed to regenerate those resources and to absorb and render harmless the waste that is produced. While this measure is being increasingly used, it is not a scientific standard and is widely criticized. The translation of every impact into land and sea areas is neither self-evident nor is it easily established. Consequently, various methodologies are in use that sometimes give conflicting results. The calcultions also largely depend on the prevailing technologies, meaning that their results are evolving with the state of technology. Nevetheless, being fully aware of its limitations, Ecological Footprint calculations can sometimes be used to establish a first rough approximation of the ecological impact of a product or a system.

http://www.leonardo-energy.org/lca-carbon-footprint-and-ecological-footprint

The first, the Living Planet Index, measures biodiversity, based on trends in more than 3,600 populations of 1,300 vertebrate species around the world. In all, data for 695 terrestrial, 344 freshwater and 274 marine species were analyzed. Terrestrial species declined by 31 per cent, freshwater species by 28 per cent, and marine species by 27 per cent.

The second index, the Ecological Footprint, measures humanity’s demand on the biosphere. Humanity’s footprint has more than tripled between 1961 and 2003. This report shows that our footprint exceeded biocapacity by 25 per cent in 2003. In the previous report (based on data to 2001), this figure was 21 per cent. The carbon dioxide footprint, from the use of fossil fuels, was the fastest growing component of our global footprint, increasing more than ninefold from 1961 to 2003.

Countries of over a million people with the largest footprint, in global hectares per person, are the United Arab Emirates, the United States of America, Finland, Canada, Kuwait, Australia, Estonia, Sweden, New Zealand and Norway. China comes mid-way in world rankings, at number 69, but its growing economy and rapid development mean it has a key role in keeping the world on the path to sustainability.