Ecological Footprints Laboratory Exercise
Like all species, humans need certain resources to survive. However, humans consume resources not only for survival, but also for comfort, luxury and prestige. Whereas nonhuman species generally must obtain their resources from within their ecosystem, in contrast, humans have derived ways (transportation) to remove resources from other ecosystems to satisfy their wants and desires. However, societies are not equal in their ability to extract, transport, process, manufacture, and use resources. And, societies have different philosophies and cultural perspectives regarding their desire to utilize resources beyond basic needs. Thus, there is a question of equitable distribution of resources among human societies and between humans and other species.
In addition to resource extraction, an additional crucial ecosystem function is the assimilation of wastes (e.g. air, water and soil pollution; hazardous, solid and radioactive waste; and waste heat). Again humans have devised ways to discharge wastes into other ecosystems by building tall smoke stacks, dumping waste in flowing rivers and oceans, and shipping wastes around the world.
The area of productive land required to provide resources and assimilate waste to meet consumption needs is referred to as the ecological footprint (Rees, 2003). This is different from the carrying capacity, which is the maximum abundance of a population that can be sustained by a habitat or ecosystem without degrading the habitat or ecosystem. Because non-humans cannot extract resources from outside their ecosystem, their population cannot exceed the carrying capacity , which is based on the availability and amount of an ecosystem’s resources. Thus, a non-human’s ecological footprint is limited by the size of the ecosystem. In contrast humans have a carrying capacity for their “ecosystem” (for example, a country). However, because humans can transfer resources from another country, their ecological footprint can exceed the carrying capacity. Thus, the United States’ ecological footprint can exceed the carrying capacity of the United States (i.e. the U. S. can maintain more people than available resources) because resources are extracted from Mexico, Africa, Saudi Arabia, and so forth. Clearly this means that for some countries, their ecological footprint must be smaller than the carrying capacity because the Earth has a finite amount of resources. Or, some populations must live near the subsistence level, whereas others can live in high comfort.
The ecological footprint is one measure of the sustainability of a society’s current lifestyle. However, this is an anthropocentric view. If humans consume all the resources or take over all the biologically productive land, what about non-humans? And what about humans in less developed countries? This is an issue of environmental equity . In developing nations such as India, about one hectare is needed to meet the resources requirements of an average person. In the United States, the average individual ecological foot print is 10 hectares (24 acres). If everyone in the world consumed resources equal to the average American, we could need 5 Earths.

Name: ________________________________
Answer questions 1-12, and fill out the table for 13 before leaving class. After class write the essay component of #13. The entire handout plus the essay are due at the start of class on February 5.
1.
Read the previous four paragraphs. List the words whose definitions are unclear to you (if any) once you have read the paragraph.
2.
Use the internet to find the definitions of the terms that were unclear to you and define them (along with the reference for where you found the information (Wikipedia, dictionary.com, etc). below.
3.
In the article you read for today Rees refers to humans as a “myth bound species”. What does he mean by this? Do you agree or disagree (10 pts)?

4.
In general terms describe whether you think you have a small or a large ecological footprint and why you think so (5 pts)?
5.
Go to the following website to calculate your ecological footprint: www.myfootprint.org
6.
Select whether you want to use US (inches, feet, pounds, etc.) or metric system and note which system you use here:
7.
Answer all the remaining questions in the online calculator. If you have lived at home with your parents in the last five years you should answer based on your family home (guess as best you can). In particular if your parents live outside the US it would be informative to answer all the questions based on information that is relevant to your lives back home.
Select the nation that is most similar to where you lived. If you have not lived with your parents in the last five years, then you should answer based on your current circumstances
(30 points).
Number of planets needed (note 1 acre = 0.4046 hectares) be sure your units are consistent when making comparisons and note which unit you are using
Category (note units: Acre/Hectare) Area of My
Footprint
Area of National
Average Footprint
Carbon
Food
Housing
Goods and Services
Total
Acre/Hectare)
Biome Footprint (note units: Acre/Hectare)
Cropland Footprint
Area of My
Footprint
Area of National
Average Footprint
Pastureland Footprint
Marine Fisheries Footprint
Forestland Footprint

8.
How many Earth’s are needed to sustain your lifestyle (5 pts)?
9.
How does your footprint compare to the average American footprint? In question 4 you were asked whether you thought you had a large or small ecological footprint. Were you correct about that (was your footprint bigger or smaller than the average American) (10 pts)?
10.
How can reduce your ecological footprint most effectively? (Hint: look at where your largest footprint is derived, carbon, food, housing, etc. Go back to those sections and change your answers to see what could make it smaller. Only change things you could realistically change – that is, you aren’t going to sell your house and move into a condo, but you might decide to take the train more or carpool). What things did you change and how did that change the number of Earth’s that you require (I want to see the actual numbers that result from changing parameters and running different scenarios) (10 pts).

11.
How do you feel about your consumption pattern and how it affects other humans on
Earth? Do you think that you have a moral obligation to reduce your footprint (5 pts)?
12.
Does this exercise make think again about your lifestyle? What might you work on changing right away (5 pts)?
13.
Record the data from other countries in the table below from information on the board
(don’t forget to be mindful of your units). If there aren’t enough other countries represented select different footprints from a range of different lifestyles
Category My
Footprint
Cropland
Pastureland
Marine Fisheries
Forestland
On a separate sheet of paper right a brief essay (1/2 page) about what the data imply about the environmental effects of different lifestyles on different components of the
Earth’s biosphere (20 pts).
Staple that Essay to this worksheet and return both during Class on Wednesday 5
February for full credit.