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The Ecological Footprint The Impact of Our Consumption on the Natural Capital
Doctor William Rees, ecological economist, teaches in the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. His teaching and research emphasize the public policy and planning implications of global environmental trends and the necessary ecological conditions for sustainable socioeconomic development. Much of his work is in the realm of ecological economics and human ecology. He is best known in this field for his invention of ‘Ecological Footprint analysis’. William Rees explains the benefits of using the Ecological Footprint, a tool which measures the total area of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems necessary to support, at prevailing levels of consumption, any specified population. He presents in a very clear manner the components that make up this indicator, and highlights the importance of calculating the Footprint at all levels—from the individual to humanity as a whole. The Ecological Footprint of Canada is found to be between 5 and 6 ha per inhabitant… while the Earth can only support Footprints of 1.8 ha/capita. “So we really do have a choice at the political level, at every level, from the communities, to cities, to the national level to the global level, to change the structure of the world economy and our behaviour.” William Rees invites us to think about the strategies that need to be implemented for us to reduce our individual and collective footprints. It is urgent to move beyond simple information sharing to developing the incentives that lead to real change. Each of us has a role to play in building “a programme for sustainability”, a necessary venture to protect our planet and enable future civilizations to flourish.
For more information: A book by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees, Our Ecological Footprint, New Society Publishers, 176 pages, 1996. Websites: - The Global Footprint Network: www.footprintnetwork.org - Best Foot Forward: www.bestfootforward.com - Redefining Progress: www.rprogress.org - One Earth Initiative: www.oneearthweb.org - About Dr. William Rees: www.scarp.ubc.ca/faculty%20profiles/rees.htm To calculate the size of your Ecological Footprint: www.sustain.ubc.ca/eco-survey/ www.myfootprint.org
The report on Freiburg is available on DVD: Licence 1 (for personal use): $ 23 (Canada) / 15 € (other countries) Licence 2 (for public projections): $ 80 (Canada) / 50 € (other countries) Other uses (exhibitions, festivals, TV broadcasts, etc.): please contact us.
This report is also available in French on the same DVD / Ce reportage est également disponible en français sur le même DVD
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