A Unit 5 Resource Use and Sustainability
LESSON #1- What Are Resources
REVIEW if Natural Resources and Sustainability
1.
1. PPT: Natural Resources Notes:
- FITB worksheet here
2.
FOOTPRINT INTERACTIVE MAP SITE
LESSON #1: ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT
1. Introduction to the Ecological Footprint
2. Ecological Footprint: Detailed Notes
How Big is Your Footprint?
Look at this image. Ask yourself:
Look at the following Image and answer these questions if you can:
- What is the topic presented in this picture
- What is the Message behind the image?
- What do the pictures/symbols/size/colour etc.. tell you?
- Who, what group, is the message for and whom is it from?
- What does it all mean? Symbolize? Represent?
Read the information on this page and then follow
link at Bottom to the quiz.
Ecological Footprint
Humanity needs what nature provides, but how do we know how much we’re using and how much we have to use?
ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT
Ecology is a subject where we study how the living and non living worlds interact. Often we call it a habitat (where something lives).
Think of the ecology of a frog habitat: It eats flies, fish eggs, lives in water that can be polluted or ponds dry up or even get destroyed… and gets eaten by fish or snakes… It’s ecological niche (place) is where he interacts with the living and non living world. How much of the world does the frog need to survive?
The Ecological Footprint has emerged as the world’s premier measure of humanity’s demand on nature.
☞The Ecological footprint measures how fast we consume resources and generate waste based on our lifestyles (how we live).
Our Ecological Footprint is based on how much land and water area a human population requires to produce the resource it consumes and to absorb its wastes, using prevailing technology.
Footprint Basics - Overview
Humanity needs what nature provides, but how do we know how much we’re using and how much we have to use?
The Ecological Footprint has emerged as the world’s premier measure of humanity’s demand on nature. This accounting system tracks, on the demand side (Footprint), how much land and water area a human population uses to provide all it takes from nature. This includes the areas for producing the resource it consumes, the space for accommodating its buildings and roads, and the ecosystems for absorbing its waste emissions such as carbon dioxide. These calculations account for each year’s prevailing technology, as productivity and technological efficiency change from year to year. The accounting system also tracks the supply of nature: it documents how much biologically productive area is available to provide these services (biocapacity ). Therefore, these accounts are able to compare human demand against nature’s supply of biocapacity.
Our current global situation: Since the 1970s, humanity has been in ecological overshoot with annual demand on resources exceeding what Earth can regenerate each year. It now takes the Earth one year and six months to regenerate what we use in a year. We maintain this overshoot by liquidating the Earth’s resources. Overshoot is a vastly underestimated threat to human well-being and the health of the planet, and one that is not adequately addressed.
By measuring the Footprint of a population—an individual, city, business, nation, or all ofhumanity—we can assess our pressure on the planet, which helps us manage our ecological assets more wisely and take personal and collective action in support of a world where humanity lives within the Earth’s bounds.
Conceived in 1990 by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees at the University of British Columbia, the Ecological Footprint is now in wide use by scientists, businesses, governments, agencies, individuals, and institutions working to monitor ecological resource use and advance sustainable development.
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TASK #1: ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT QUIZ
How much land area does it take to support your lifestyle?
Take this quiz to find out your Ecological Footprint, discover your biggest areas of
resource consumption, and learn what you can do to tread more lightly on the earth.
ANSWER SHEET PROVIDED BY TEACHER.