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To maintain Australian lifestyles at their current levels requires
the resources of nearly five Plant Earths
All human activity has an impact on the planet. We grow crops and raise livestock for food.
The industries that cater for our household needs consume energy, and more energy is consumed when we travel by mechanised transport. We produce waste.
Our impact on the environment can be measured to show us whether we are living within the Earth's capacity to meet our needs, or whether we are using more than our fair share of Earth's resources.
This measurement is called our ecological footprint.
Our ecological footprint is the amount of productive land and water we each need to sustain our chosen lifestyle.
Allowing that we have to share the Earth with more than six billion other people and around 30 million other species-without depriving future generations-the biologically productive area available for human use is 1.8 hectares per person.
In Australia the average footprint per person is 7.6 hectares, which is unsustainable.
In the Byron Shire, where sustainability is becoming a way of life for many people, it is slightly below this.
But it's still too big. We have to find ways to tread more lightly on the Earth.
For the average Australian to maintain their current lifestyle would require the resources of nearly five Planet Earths.
Globally the average footprint is 2.3 hectares per person which is still 35 per cent greater than the land space available.
Australia is second only to America as the biggest per capita consumer of the world's resources.
Try a quick quiz to measure your own ecological footprint at www.earthday.net/footprint. The quiz has been devised by the Earthday network, an international organisation that is committed to creating a healthier environment.
When you have done the quiz you will find more information on the site about the many things you can do to reduce the size of your ecological footprint.
Click <here> to measure your progress with the simple 'Sustainable Pathway'
World economy on a collision course
The population of the world is 6.7 billion people—and it’s growing all the time.
By 2042, there will be an estimated 9 billion people competing with each other for Earth’s dwindling resources.
The trouble is that our ‘natural capital’ is already in overdraft.
Unless we make drastic changes to our lifestyle, there will be no way of repaying it.
Earth's ability to stay within its carrying capacity occurs only because people in the poorer countries get considerably less than their fair share of Earth’s resources.
If China’s 1.2 billion people had the same per capita eco-footprint as citizens of the US, China alone would require the entire bio-capacity of Earth. (The US, with less that 5 per cent of the world’s population, uses about a quarter of its resources.)
The ever-expanding global economy, driven by the growing population, puts humanity on a collision course with ecological sustainability.
•FactWorldwide population is growing by more than 75 million people per year, but the rate is slowing. The United Nations predicts net growth by mid-century to be 34 million per year in contrast to the roughly 76 million per year that was seen from 2000 to 2005.
•FactIn 2000-2005, fertility at the world level stood at 2.65 children per woman, about half the level it had in 1950-1955 (5 children per woman). In the medium variant, global fertility is projected to decline further to 2.05 children per woman.