Exercise No. 1 - Estimation of Your Ecological Footprint PDF

Biol 183n – Biological Resource Management Laboratory Exercise No. 1 Estimation of Your Ecological Footprint CC BY-SA 2.0 Lab Instructors: Class Schedule: 4-6T Lec; 10-1W...

Biol 183n – Biological Resource Management Laboratory Exercise No. 1 Estimation of Your Ecological Footprint CC BY-SA 2.0 Lab Instructors: Class Schedule: 4-6T Lec; 10-1W Honeylene V. Ongy Lab MSc. Tropical Ecology Email: [email protected] Lab Ex. No.1 Introduction What to do? Questions? Ecological Footprint measure of the demands made by a person or group of people on global natural resources or the supply offered by nature introduced by William Rees (1992) evaluate the environmental impact of activities conducted by humans total area of land required to sustain an activity or population which includes environmental impacts, such as water use and the amount of land used for food production can be calculated for regions, countries, cities, individuals, businesses, and as a whole, of an entire planet Ecological footprint simply indicates the amount of pressure that humans put on the natural resources available to them in their surroundings Footprint made of leaves 2 © iStockPhoto / Dena Steiner Lab Ex. No.1 Introduction What to do? Questions? Ecological Footprint estimates the biologically productive land and sea area needed to provide the renewable resources that a population consumes and to absorb the wastes it generates measured in “global hectares” (gha) evaluates the demand and supply of nature, including all biological and ecological assets that is required require to produce natural resources for CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 sustenance:  livestock and fish  timber and other wood products  plant-based food  space for building infrastructure compared with how much productive area—or biocapacity — is available Footprint made of leaves 3 © iStockPhoto / Dena Steiner Lab Ex. No.1 Introduction What to do? Questions? Ecological Footprint On a personal level, determines how much you consume, and how sustainably these products are being manufactured. The ecological footprint plays a very important role in helping organizations and nations determine how much productive land is available to them. Environmental educators and activists have used CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 the EF to raise awareness of unsustainable consumption patterns, often with the goal of encouraging a change in lifestyles and, less frequently, to promote awareness of wider structural forces driving such patterns. Footprint made of leaves 4 © iStockPhoto / Dena Steiner Lab Ex. No.1 Introduction What to do? Questions? Biocapacity/ Biological Capacity an estimate of the Earth’s production of certain biological materials such as natural resources, and its absorption and filtering of other materials such as carbon dioxide from the atmosphere used together with ecological footprint as a method of measuring human impact on the environment the biocapacity of each individual is calculated based on the productive area available (in hectares), the productivity of each area, and the number of people who share it if a population's ecological footprint is greater than the biocapacity to service it, that region risks running a biocapacity or ecological deficit if a region’s biocapacity exceeds its Ecological Footprint, it has a biocapacity reserve Country/ Region Ecological Footprint Biocapacity Deficit or Reserve? United States 2.6B (7.8/person) 1.2B (3.7/person) −110% Canada 296M (7.9/person) 544M (14.5/ person) 84% Philippines 142M (1.3/person) 45.9M (0.4/person) -210% China 5.1B (3.5/person) 1.2B (0.8/ person) −340% French Guiana 512K (1.8/person) 26.1M (91.8/person) 4900% 5 Top 10 Countries with the Highest Top 10 Countries with the Top 5 Countries with the Ecological Footprint (2024) Highest Biocapacity Reserve Highest Total Ecological (2024) Deficits (2024) Country Total Ecological Country Total Biocapacity Country Total Ecological Footprint (gha) (gha) Deficit (gha) China 5.1B Brazil 1.8B China -4B US 2.6B US 1.2B US -1.49B India 1.5B China 1.2B India -1B Russia 848M Russia 1.1B Japan -517M Brazil 551M Canada 544M S.Korea -281M Japan 533M India 492M Indonesia 454M Indonesia 336M Eco-footprint success story: United Kingdom  Due to reductions in fossil fuel use, which Germany 392M Australia 291M trimmed the country's overall ecological deficit from -307.9 billion gha in 2007 to Mexico 315M Argentina 245M -206.2 gha in 2017 France 312M Colombia 189M Lab Ex. No.1 Introduction What to do? Questions? Estimating Your Ecological Footprint Ecological footprints measure humanity’s demands on nature. Carbon footprint Food footprint Good and services foot print CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 The ‘ecological footprint’ is not equal across countries or within countries Footprint made of leaves 7 © iStockPhoto / Dena Steiner Lab Ex. No.1 Introduction What to do? Questions? Estimating Your Ecological Footprint Ecological Footprint 1. Transportation - requires energy in the form of fossil fuels (which produce emissions) and large areas of land for roads. It also produces noise pollution that can harm humans and wildlife 2. Energy Consumption - includes the direct consumption of non- renewable resources like fossils and the indirect consumption associated with the production, transportation, and distribution of energy 3. Food Production - Agriculture requires a large amount of land, which can lead to deforestation and habitat destruction. Moreover, about 70% of global freshwater goes into agriculture. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Food production creates a significant amount of waste, such as carbon dioxide from the use of fertilizers, methane from livestock digestion, etc. 4. Carbon Emissions 5. Waste Generation – ex. manufacturing, transportation, etc. harms ecosystems and human health. The disposal of waste requires land, which can deplete resources and damage ecosystems; improper disposal can also lead to pollution. Waste disposal also contributes to greenhouse gas emissions Footprint made of leaves 8 © iStockPhoto / Dena Steiner Lab Ex. No.1 Introduction What to do? Questions? Estimating Your Ecological Footprint Carbon footprint  amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with all the activities of a person  includes direct emissions, such as those that result from fossil-fuel combustion in manufacturing, heating, and CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 transportation, as well as emissions required to produce the electricity associated with goods and services consumed  expressed as a measure of weight, as in tons of CO2 or CO2 equivalent per year Footprint made of leaves 9 © iStockPhoto / Dena Steiner Lab Ex. No.1 Introduction What to do? Questions? Estimating Your Ecological Footprint Foodprint or food carbon footprint  greenhouse gas emissions produced by growing, rearing, farming, processing, transporting, storing, cooking and disposing of the food you eat 10  Lab Ex. No.1 Introduction What to do? Questions? Silent Spring - book that documented the environmental harm caused by the indiscriminate use of pesticides (Rachel Carson -1962) Brundtland Report - publication that introduced the concept of sustainable development and described how it could be achieved Rio Earth Summit - a summit tackling issues relating to sustainability being too big for individual member states to handle Kyoto Protocol - commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that global warming is occurring and that human-made CO2 emissions are driving it Harich, 2011 ( CC-BY-SA-3.0) Lab Ex. No.1 Introduction What to do? Questions? Objectives 1. Identify the carbon footprint, food footprint, and goods and services footprint. 2. Estimate ecological footprint 3. Analyze ecological footprint 4. Interpret ecological footprint Lab Ex. No.1 Introduction What to Questions? do? Materials and Methods 1. Search for an ecological footprint calculator from the internet. Use that and make sure to cite what particular calculator you used and the references properly. Ecological Footprint Calculator Ecological Footprint Calculator FOOTPRINT CALCULATOR (henkel.com) 2. Answer the question and estimate your individual ecological footprint. Determine your own impact. Please do not forget to screenshot your results for this will be used as an attachment. 3. Request politely 2 more family members or friends to do the same. Also, have their results screenshot. 4. Compare your consumption from other people. Make a graph. 5. Develop a map of the human footprint and color it. Darker regions presents greater impact from human development than lighter regions. One map only representing from the three of you. (Note: Not necessarily an accurate map, just something to represent your impact and the area as well) 6. Include ways you can reduce your ecological footprint. Lab Ex. No.1 Introduction What to do? Questions? QUESTIONS?