Ecological Footprint

Xie Gaodi from the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences is the lead author of a recent research paper published in the journal Sustainability. He recently talked with Global Footprint Network about the unsustainability of giant cities…

Despite over $150 billion being spent annually in development globally, virtually nobody is tracking whether the achieved progress can last, or whether it is becoming increasingly fragile without the necessary access to nature’s resources. But this is changing. The United Nations Development Programme’s…

LESS IS MORE: Merkel wants people to consider the global impact of individual choices. Photograph by Thomas Ames Jr. Dartmouth’s sustainability coordinator, Jim Merkel, recently delivered a Thayer School Jones Seminar on sustainable design. Merkel, who holds a B.S. in electrical engineering, is on a…

Over at New Geography, Joel Kotkin has a new against high-density inner city life. It s called Forced March to the Cities,presumably to feed the right-wing talking-point that urbanism and planning are totalitarian. Here s the part that s supposed to scare you: One influential document called Moving…

Today, the term “carbon footprint” is often used as shorthand for the amount of carbon (usually in tonnes) being emitted by an activity or organization. The carbon component of the Ecological Footprint takes a slightly differing approach, translating the amount of carbon dioxide into the amount of productive…

One year after the deadliest accident to ever occur on Mt Everest, attention has now turned to the human impact on the ecology of the iconic mountain. Since the deadly avalanche in 2012, killing 16 people, the Sherpa community called off any future ascents on the mountain. As a result, their attention…

Many years ago, people grew their own food, made their own clothes and built their own houses. Each family or community was pretty much self-sufficient and used only what they needed to live. These days, we get material and consume goods from all over the world. We use resources like metal, paper, air…

I recently calculated my ecological footprint using an online calculator. If everyone lived as I do, we would need 2.39 planet earths, and we obviously have only one. I started this blog with the concept of ecological footprint because it is an integrated measurement of the effect of lifestyle choices…

The fans travelling to a football game make up a large part of the carbon footprint. Photograph: Thomas Kienzle/AP The carbon footprint the 2010 World Cup : 2.8 million tonnes CO2e To put this headline figure in perspective, 2.8m tonnes is roughly equivalent to 6, space shuttle fights, three quiet years…