The ecological footprint is a way of measuring our impact on

the natural environment. It uses daily human activity to

calculate, in a general way, how much productive land and

water would be required to support our current way of life.

Research tells us that there are only about 1.8 hectares of

productive land and water space to support the life of each

person on the Earth if we all shared equally.

However, the average Canadian uses much more than this, while people in less-developed nations

often use much less. This means that Canadians, and all members of the more-developed nations

of the world, need to carefully examine their personal impact on the natural environment.

Citizens, groups, and nations can calculate their ecological footprints using different formulas,

some of which are more complicated than others. However, all calculations of ecological

footprints include the following elements:

9 food and water consumption

9 waste production

9 housing

9 transportation

9 energy consumption

9 consumption of products (goods) and services

When scientists determine the ecological footprint per capita (per person) of any given country,

they often compare it to the biological capacity of that country, which is the amount of

available land and water space capable of sustaining life in that country.

Some countries have a large supply of productive space. Canada, for example, has large surfaces

of arable land, natural resources, and fresh water, and therefore has a large biological capacity.

When a country’s ecological footprint is higher than its biological capacity, it has an ecological

deficit. This means that it cannot sustain the current lifestyle without help from other

countries.