Ecological footprint

Under the ecological footprint ( also English Ecological Footprint ) the area is understood on Earth, which is necessary to enable the lifestyle and standard of living of a person ( under present conditions of production ) permanently. This includes areas that are needed for the production of clothing and food or to provide energy, but for example also for the disposal of waste or to bind the carbon dioxide released by human activities. The values ​​are expressed in global hectares per person per year.

The concept was developed in 1994 by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees. 2003, the Global Footprint Network founded by Wackernagel, supported inter alia by the Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, Lester R. Brown and Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker.

The ecological footprint is often used to refer in connection with the concept of education for sustainable development on social and individual sustainability deficits - depending on whether man changes his ecological reserve in an ecological deficit.

Data of continents and countries

• From 5.4 to 10.7
• 4.7 to 5.4
• 4.0 to 4.7

• 3.2 to 4.0
• 2.5 to 3.2
• 1.8 to 2.5

• 1.1 to 1.8
• 0.4 to 1.1
• No data

• From 5.5 to 29.2
• 4.7 to 5.5
• 3.9 to 4.7

• 3.0 to 3.9
• 2.2 to 3.0
• 1.4 to 2.2

• 0.6 to 1.4
• From 0 to 0.6
• No data

• 2 to 27.9
• 1-2
• 0-1

• -1 To 0
• -2 To -1
• -3 To -2

• -4 To -3
• -9.8 To -4
• No data

0.7

1.1

0.4

0.6

2.7

0.6

0.7

0.5

1.2

6.7

8.5

3.3

1.3

0.4

3.7

3.6

9.6

5.8

3.4

2.6

6.0

1.9

0.6

3.8

3.8

3.4

* million

** Ha / person

The global mobilization to meet human needs currently exceeds by data of the Global Footprint Network and the European Environment Agency, the capacity of available space to a total of 50 %. After that currently 2.7 ha per person (hectares) are consumed, but there are only 1.8 hectares available. This recourse to the surface very unevenly distributed across the regions: Europe ( EU25 ), for example, requires 4.7 hectares per person, but can provide only 2.2 ha himself available. This means an overuse of the European biocapacity by over 100%. France claimed it nearly doubled, Germany nearly two and half times and the UK more than three times its respective available biocapacity. Similar disparities are also found between town and country.

Methodology

The Global Footprint Network attaches great importance to the transparency of its methodology set out in a variety of publications and is scientifically proven.

The instrument of the ecological footprint is a question based on: "How much biological capacity of the planet is taken from a given human activity or population group to complete " The methodology employs two areas relate to each other: the average available for a human land and water surfaces ( biocapacity ) are compared with those of land and water areas that are utilized to produce the needs of that people and absorb the wastes generated thereby ( the ecological footprint ). However, the ecological footprint is limited to biologically productive land and water areas, which are divided into the categories of farmland, grazing land, used for fishing marine areas and inland water areas and forest. Not biologically usable areas ( built-up areas, as well as deserts and high mountains) are considered neutral.

The methodological success of the ecological footprint is based on using productivity factors such areas to be converted into global hectares. So you can refer to an average productive " standard acres " as a common unit of measurement to compare very different world areas with each other. In addition, on this basis could be calculated back to 1960 numbers, although the ecological footprint in 1994 was "invented". The methodology has since been refined without changing the basic concept.

The ecological footprint makes from the outset a number of methodological limitations that affect its import:

Assessment

The concept of the ecological footprint has a number of strengths and weaknesses, which are discussed by the authors with the same openness as the methodology.

The strengths include: The concept is easy to visualize and communicate a global hectare is very clear. His strong reductionism is helpful, especially in the field of environmental education. Base is the status quo, neither there is speculation about future technologies, yet assumptions about " meaningful " use or " necessary " standard of living. The concept of carrying capacity is deliberately avoided. The methodology has been developed in 1994 and since then has basically remained unchanged. Old figures are comparable to new figures for past periods calculable.

The following are weaknesses with respect to: the reduction to a characteristic size is also an elemental weakness. The authors admit that this incomplete picture must be supplemented by complementary indicators that take into account " other important aspects of sustainability." In addition, the per-hectare approach is not applicable for all biological factors (water consumption, biodiversity). Non-biological factors such as waste, non-renewable resources or toxic and other hazardous substances found no place in the methodology. The production of CO2 contributes in most industrialized countries, more than half of the footprint. This dominance of a single factor, which falls a little way from the methodology of biologically productive land is methodologically problematic. The productivity factor is also not without problems - intensive and monocultural agriculture then has a smaller land take than organic farming and cuts in the footprint better.

The ecological footprint provides an overview of the situation as well as insights for individual regions. However, a balanced ecological footprint is only a necessary minimum condition for sustainability and not sufficient. There is a risk of exploitation by countries or organizations that perform relatively well by this criterion.

Ecological Debt Day

Based on the ecological footprint can be the " Ecological Debt Day" or " Earth Overshoot Day " calculate, which is also referred to as " Ökoschuldentag " or " Overshoot " in German. This indicates the calendar each year, from which the consumed by mankind resources exceed the capacity of the earth to generate this. Is calculated the Ecological Debt Day by dividing the global biocapacity, ie the course of a year produced by the earth natural resources, multiplied by the ecological footprint of humanity with the number 365, the number of days in the Gregorian calendar. In 2012, he was on 22 August. The annual trend is to bring forward to an earlier date, however, it is due to the methodology and new findings to a certain range.

Reception

• Exhibition Foundation Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig - Leibniz Institute for Biodiversity ( ZFMK ) in Bonn: Human Footprint - Human action in the satellite image (January to March 2014)