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Did you know that the United States consumes up to 30% of the world's resources and generates 25% of the world's wastes? All this, with only 4.5% of the world's population!
The Ecological Footprint is a measurement tool developed by the Global Footprint Network (GFN) that provides a measurement of human natural resource consumption and permits a comparison with nature¨s ability to meet those demands. The ＾footprint￣ is expressed in global hectares per person (a hectare is 2.47 acres or roughly the size of a football field, excluding end zones). A country¨s ecological footprint is the total area required to produce the food and fiber it consumes, absorb the waste from its energy consumption and provide space for its infrastructure. The global impact of a country is a reflection of its resource consumption per person, total population and its efficiency of resource use. Biocapacity also may change with the rate and area of biological productivity.
Out of approximately 150 countries evaluated by the GFN, the United States ranks number two in the global area required per capita. In 2001, the productive area of the biosphere provided approximately 1.8 global hectares per person. The ecological footprint of the United States was 9.5 global hectares per person, or approximately five times the available global capacity per person. Stated another way, it would take five planets if everyone in the world adopted the lifestyle of a typical U.S. citizen!
Click on the image to read the World Wildlife Fund's 2006 Living Planet Report, a periodic update on the state of the world's ecosystem. |
This website is intended to raise awareness about the impact our U.S. lifestyle has on people and our planet. We have selected consumerism, climate change, resource depletion and pollution as talking points to illustrate relationships between our lifestyle choices and our earth.
We present ideas or "food for thought", while at the same time providing resources to mobilize us to act in ways that will :
Please contact us with your ideas or thoughts about building a more just and sustainable world. We would like to hear from you!
Click here to visit the next page to find out!
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Copyright [2007] [Eco-Justice Collaborative]. All rights reserved Eco-Justice Collaborative 1645 W. Jarvis Avenue ▪ Chicago, IL 60626 ▪ 773.556.3417 / 773.556.3418 ejc@ecojusticecollaborative.org ▪ www.ecojusticecollaborative.org
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