Chapter 4. Chapter 4: Environmental Economics and Consumption

What is the concept of an ecological footprint...

Interactive Study Guide

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Guiding Question 4.2

What is the concept of an ecological footprint, and how does it relate to our use of natural interest and natural capital?

Why You Should Care

Just as your footprint on the ground can give your height (there is a relationship between foot size and height), your ecological footprint gives a measure of how many acres of an ecosystem give their services to support your lifestyle.

The products of the ecosystem each year (oxygen, calories, wood, etc.) are natural interest that we can harvest each year without diminishing the ecosystem’s natural capital. What happens if we take more than the natural interest? Is sustainability simply living on just the natural interest?

Obviously, each person makes different lifestyle choices, but by looking at footprints for large groups of people, we can make general conclusions about how sustainable our choices are. Sustainability then means that we can make personal choices that use only what the ecosystem can give without diminishing it (living off the natural interest and keeping the natural capital intact from year to year).

Question Test Your Vocabulary

Choose the correct term for each of the following definitions:

Term	Definition
pX1L0oh7vdc/Qifglu8t5tqSqYX8p5gnQSRuOhkOf5OchKx0x8EKNwkpsQbhhZ6BYB4214Fu5YoqTRtlDg7+hg==	Readily produced resources that we could use and still leave enough behind to replace what we took.
sfgvmxsjYN+/jba0AejqVwxADXoxqvDv96dGI+edKPNKWojbz/zJ/mIRAwM+d9fkQIv959BJ+VwgwlPBDS8K+w==	The wealth of resources on Earth.
3yUV4PQRVEM8+BKLFLHwNg0Y6AOQB1/83dmHshCnJjj0Ru4nIpy3LysQhzaFNaEhGz4tUitA5NKRgRis1UPP3A==	The land needed to provide the resources for and assimilate the waste of a person or population.

999

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Question Sequence

Go to the Nature Conservancy webpage and calculate your carbon footprint by answering all of the questions (it should take you less than 2 minutes to complete). If the question asks you something you are unfamiliar with, click on “more info” at the end of the question to clarify. Answer as honestly as you can, but do not be concerned if you are over- or underestimating. Remember that any footprint calculation’s answer is relative.

After you complete the quiz, you will see a Results page with suggestions for lowering your footprint in several categories and an “Emissions Comparison” box on the right. Keep that page up or write down your values so that you can answer the following questions.

Question 4.1

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Any footprint calculation less than 20 tons CO₂ is better than the United States average, anything greater is worse than the United States average. Any calculation less than 4 tons CO₂ is better than the global average; anything greater than 4 tons is worse than the global average.

Question 4.2

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For most Americans, housing is the largest category, followed closely by transportation.

Question 4.3

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For most U.S. residents, it will be housing, and that represents heating and electrical choices that are hard to change because they are so expensive to purchase or replace.

Question 4.4

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Three personal changes:
1. Eating less meat and more plants
2. Driving fewer miles; flying fewer miles
3. Using more fluorescent lighting
4. Using renewable electricity sources
5. Eating organic food

Question 4.5

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Lowering ideas:
1. Increase mass transit choices
2. Make regulations stricter on Energy Star appliances
3. Increase renewable electricity options
4. Increase fuel efficiency in new cars

Question 4.6

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U.S. citizens have higher footprint values because we consume more goods and use more services to support that consumption. The rest of the world is more likely to consume fewer goods (in the poorer countries) or use less energy to support those goods (richer countries have more transportation choices and so can use less and have a lower footprint).

Question 4.7

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Natural capital would increase, or at least slow its decrease, if footprint was lower and more sustainable. By using fewer resources, we leave more natural capital for ecosystems to use.

Question 4.8

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The average human is closer because their ecological footprint is lower. Lower footprint means less capital is being used and makes it more likely that the average human is using just natural interest for their lifestyle.

Question Sequence

Examine the graph below showing GDP (gross domestic product, a measure of how much is produced by an economy in a year) changing over time (blue line). As the blue line increases, notice that the natural interest available to wildlife decreases.

Question 4.9

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999

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Correct.

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Question 4.10

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999

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Correct.

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Question 4.11

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When GDP is greater than natural interest, then the extra comes from natural capital.

Question 4.12

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As natural capital decreases, then the amount of natural interest would also decrease. In the real world, this would mean that ecosystem was shrinking and/or becoming less productive as its own ecosystem services decreased.