The human ecological footprint

Ecological footprint analysis (EFA) estimates the exclusive area of productive ecosystems that any specified human population requires to produce the bio-resources it consumes and assimilate the (mostly carbon) waste it produces. The eco-footprint (EF) is the only sustainability indicator that enables comparisons of human demand for ecosystems’ goods and services with the available supply of biocapacity (productive ecosystem area). EFA reveals that the global human enterprise is in overshoot, consuming renewable resources faster than ecosystems regenerate and filling natural waste sinks beyond capacity. Most of the world’s nations have long overshot their domestic carrying capacities; they survive on imports and run large ecological deficits with surplus countries and the global commons. Similarly, cities are all overshoot, utterly dependent for survival on ecosystems scattered all over the planet. Overshoot is a meta-problem—global warming, plunging biodiversity, tropical deforestation, soil/land degradation, pollution of air, land and waters, etc., etc., are all co-symptoms. Left uncorrected, overshoot is a terminal condition; eco-footprinting indicates that global urban civilization is on track for controlled contraction or chaotic collapse—our choice.