Footprint Network Blog
While Africans per capita consume very little of the world’s biological resources, growing population is bringing the region close to reaching it’s ecological limits, according to a groundbreaking report Global Footprint Network, in conjunction with WWF, presented June 9 at the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment in Johannesburg.
Offering the first in-depth look at the Ecological Footprint of Africa and its constituent countries, Africa: Ecological Footprint and Human Wellbeing examines the role natural resources can play in advancing the region’s goals to end poverty and disease – or conversely, if mismanaged, in thwarting these goals. The report is the result of a multi-year effort by Global Footprint Network and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation to explore how ecological limits apply and relate to human development in the region.
Understanding Africa’s ecological assets and pressures
As the ongoing world food crises makes clear, human welfare is critically linked to mankind’s use and stewardship of biological resources. Nowhere is this more true than in Africa – a region with tremendous natural wealth, yet which often suffers first and most tragically when humanity’s demand on nature exceeds what nature can provide.
“There is a strong international commitment to improving human well-being in Africa and advancing the Millennium Development Goals to reduce poverty, hunger and disease,” said Global Footprint Network Executive Director, Mathis Wackernagel. “Yet, to advance these critical goals and produce lasting success, we need to work with, rather than against, ecological budget constraints. If development ignores the limits of our natural resources, the gains that are made cannot persist, and the most vulnerable people such as the rural poor will be the first to suffer.”
The report finds the average African had an Ecological Footprint of 1.1 global hectares in 2003, well below the global average of 2.2 hectares per person. However, a growing number of African countries are now depleting their natural resources or will shortly be doing so – faster than they can be replaced. Clear dangers loom from a projected more than doubling of Africa’s population by 2050, taking it from about one eighth to nearly a quarter of the total world population.
Egypt, Libya and Algeria head the list of African countries living well beyond their ecological means, with the Ecological Footprints of Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Senegal, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe also exceeding national biocapacity.
However, several African nations are “ ecological creditors:” they produce more biocapacity than they consume. This stands in contrast to U.S. and Europe which are ecological debtors. The U.S., for example, has a Footprint more than 100 percent larger than its biocapacity. According to the report, many opportunities exist in Africa to manage and use biocapacity more effectively.
The Africa Report helps chart a course for progress founded on a solid understanding of the region’s ecological assets and pressures.
“There are huge opportunities to improve well-being in lasting ways while staying within our ecological constraints,” Wackernagel said. Among these are giving women access to health choices, education and economic opportunities; designing infrastructure that will make cities more resilient to resource scarcities; and leapfrogging directly to the most resource-efficient technologies instead of using older, more resource dependent ones.
Click here to view a full copy of the report.
As the second fastest-growing Canadian city with a population that has grown 13 percent in five years, Calgary finds itself at a critical moment. City leaders are faced with making infrastructure and planning decisions that will shape the way residents live for years to come, and are looking to balance the needs of citizens with a growing concern about the city’s use of natural resources. The government has launched an Ecological Footprint Project with Global Footprint Network that will help officials understand the ecological impacts of these decisions – and move in a direction that provides the most ecologically sustainable future for its citizens.
A 2005 Ecological Footprint study found that Calgary residents have the highest Ecological Footprint of any Canadian city at 9.9 global hectares per person – a lifestyle that, if everyone lived that way, would require five Earths to support. The city is engaged in a number of efforts to reduce its resource consumption. Using data developed with Global Footprint Network in accordance with international standards, officials are able to see how particular activities are affecting the Footprint, identify areas that are within their ability to change and take into account local actions that can and are making a difference.
Perhaps the most dramatic action the city has taken has been to halt new development on green space for at least a year until officials can develop a policy that takes the Footprint and long-term sustainability goals into account. Calgary has also become the first city in North America to power its public light rail transit system with 100 per cent emissions-free wind-generated energy, through an initiative called Ride the Wind. The Ecological Footprint of Ride the Wind is measurably smaller than other LRT systems.
The city is working to spark awareness among residents of Calgary’s Ecological Footprint and raise discussion about what can be done to change it. The city has released the report Reducing the Ecological Footprint: A Calgary Approach describing Calgary’s efforts to lighten up and offering residents resources for individual action.
“Humanity is brushing up against ecological limits”, “natural resources are dwindling”, “unsustainable consumption increases” – whatever the chosen term or headline, the fact is that the concept of overshoot has gotten a lot of media attention recently. The past few months have seen stories in The New Yorker, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal among others, all reflecting a growing awareness that carbon is only part of the overshoot story.
In a New York Times Op-Ed column “What’s Your Consumption Factor,” (January 2, 2008), Jared Diamond, author of the recent book Collapse, discusses the importance of the number 32: that’s the difference in the rate at which people in the industrialized nations consume resources and produce waste compared to those in the non-industrialized world. “If the whole developing world were suddenly to catch up,” Diamond writes. “It would be as if the world population ballooned to 72 billion people.”
The good news, according to Diamond, is that our consumption contributes little to the most vital quality-of-life indicators, factors like life expectancy, infant mortality, access to medical care, financial security after retirement and quality public education. He also argues that we know how to extract fish from the ocean and timber from the forests in a way that is sustainable – we just haven’t put this knowledge into practice. Ultimately, he says, it is certain that developed nations will soon be forced to consume less, while the developing world will consume more. “These are desirable trends, not horrible prospects,” he says.
The Wall Street Journal takes up the issue of resource limits in “New Limits to Growth Revive Malthusian Fears” (March 24, 2008). As the world grows more populous – and prosperous – the demand for our limited resources “has soared. If supplies don’t keep pace, prices are likely to climb further, economic growth in rich and poor nations could suffer, and some fear violent conflicts could ensue.” Some of the resources – such as arable land and fresh water – have no substitutes, the authors say. Others, like coal, have negative environmental impacts like contributing to global warming that limit their utility. Economics and technology may play a part in the solution, the authors say, but ultimately, consumer behavior will have to change.
In The New Yorker article “Big Foot” (February 25, 2008), Michael Specter poses the question: how do we measure our environmental impact? “Possessing an excessive carbon footprint is becoming the equivalent of wearing a scarlet letter,” he says. At the same time, he writes, “the calculations required to assess the full environmental impact of how we live can be dazzlingly complex.” He assesses pros and cons of some of the measures being adopted to address climate change, from the personal – making certain product choices, eating local, driving less – to the political, in the form of taxes, economic incentives and laws.
What does the word “footprint” mean? Today, it’s likely to refer less to the tread mark your sneaker leaves in the dirt, and more to the imprint you’ll leave on the planet. So says word maven William Safire in a recent “On Language” column in the New York Times Magazine. In the February 17 column, Safire traces the word’s journey from its literal meaning to the metaphoric significance it has gained in recent years as a measure of environmental impact.
Global Footprint Network’s Executive Director Mathis Wackernagel, who has been working on the Ecological Footprint for 17 years, told Safire that BP’s carbon Footprint campaign in 2005 was one of the biggest boons to the term’s popular use. Safire credits Wackernagel and former colleague William Rees with helping give the word its ecological connotations, and tells the story of how Rees [with Wackernagel] was writing a scientific paper in 1992 when he admired the “smaller footprint” that a new computer model made upon his desk and was struck by a flash of inspiration. With a few quick edits to his paper, the term Ecological Footprint was born, and, a resource accounting methodology and Footprinting movement has followed.
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In Deep Economy, renowned environmental journalist and climate activist Bill McKibben has done more than simply write a catchy page-turner; he has created a blueprint for bringing humanity out of overshoot. McKibben weaves evidence of our ecological crisis (including Footprint data) with explorations of the history and psychology of our growth-based economy and “hyper-individualist” culture. Clearly but gently, he shows how global economic expansion has become our culture’s mantra, yet is simply not an option if humans are to survive this era of global overshoot.
Deep Economy stands out from other often alienating eco-manifestos because McKibben writes of our unsustainable norms with unrivaled compassion, appealing to all sides of the political spectrum with his particular brand of earnest and pragmatic hopefulness. He covers the doom and gloom facts and the myth that money can buy happiness in just one chapter, spending most of his easy, fast-paced book highlighting stories of re-localization and economies that bring prosperity and happiness rather than efficient maximization of profit. At the heart of McKibben’s message is a call for innovation— for a new economic paradigm based in our own backyards, gauging our success with a measuring stick far more useful than the GDP.
McKibben paints a localized picture, where individuals harness their potential for the growth and progress of their own community with localized food, energy, even entertainment. It’s a picture filled with inspiring anecdotes of budding projects, communities, countries and economies that are working toward a one planet future.
“We in the rich countries no longer inhabit a planet where straight-ahead Newtonian economics, useful as it has been, can help us,” McKibben writes. “We need an Einstein economics, a more complicated and relativistic science that asks deeper questions.”
Indeed, most of McKibben’s refreshing book explores these very questions, and highlights through true stories from Vermont to Cuba how the GDP and our neoclassical economics simply do not work in a resource-constrained world – we need different measures and different strategies to cultivate the wealth of communities and the health of our psyches and our planet.
Click here to download Global Footprint Network’s 2007 Annual Report. The past year has been one of growth for both our organization and for the Footprint’s influence in the world. Our Annual Report expresses hope and progress towards ending overshoot, with great strides in our Ten-in-Ten campaign, our work with Human Development in Africa, India, and China, and Footprinting for local governments. It also celebrates a diversity of Footprint successes from our partner organizations, and maps out our plans for an even more impactful 2008.
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Since our inception in 2004, Global Footprint Network has invited organizations with shared goals to partner with us in strengthening the Footprint and enhancing its value as a catalyst for sustainability. We began with just 12 founding partners and have expanded to well over 80 organizations with the common vision of ending overshoot.
Global Footprint Network has welcomed 9 new partners already in 2008: Agir 21 and Bank Sarasin in Switzerland; the City of Vancouver and Anielski Management in Canada, Sustainability Planning Partners and OZOlab (associated with the New York OZOcar phenomenon) in the US, Groundwork Lancashire West and Wigan in the UK, Nature Humaine in France, and Alberfield Pty Ltd in Australia. We look forward to continuing to strengthen the Partner Network this year and invite interested organizations to learn more about partnership.
Hear Mathis Wackernagel discuss how the Ecological Footprint helps inform sustainable development and which countries are winning the game on this Living on Earth interview.
Global Footprint Network and EPA Victoria have just launched a new personal Ecological Footprint calculator for Australia. Built in partnership with Free Range Studios (the creators of the viral film The Meatrix and The Story of Stuff) the new calculator provides a graphic representation of your impact on the planet.
The launch of the Australian calculator is the first phase of a global roll-out of a world calculator which will launch later this year. Following the Australian calculator, a US version will be available this spring, and Canada will follow shortly thereafter.
Global Footprint Network has initiated this project to provide people around the world with an interactive and entertaining tool they can use to explore and reduce their footprints. The calculator is based on internationally accepted methodological standards, and will be continually updated with the latest Footprint data. Later additions of the calculator will incorporate enhanced features such as a blog site and a social networking feature which will enable users to engage in dialogue about how to live a low-footprint lifestyle.
Global Footprint Network is inviting corporate, government, and NGO partners to help launch the calculator world-wide. The calculator can be customized for specific organizations and geographical areas. Please contact Susan Burns if you would like to be involved or would like the calculator customized for your organization.
Help us communicate about ecological overshoot by submitting a 2-3 minute video to our Ecological Debt Video Contest. Winners receive cash prizes, Footprint DVDs, and more!
Amateur and professional filmmakers welcome - anyone can submit videos, vote on submissions, and encourage others to participate in the contest at http://planet2025.tv/ecodebt. Please submit entries and spread the word to all the filmmakers you know - videos will be judged and prizes will be awarded in March/April.
This contest, created in partnership with Planet2025 Network and EPA Victoria, offers a chance to put your creativity to good use: these videos will help us visualize and expand the public conversation about overshoot, and spark fresh ideas to communicate about the most important issue of our time. We hope to watch your submissions soon!
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