In fact when we eat, drink, breathe, we are constantly exchanging energy and matter with our environment. We need to constantly and continuously produce energy waste and waste of various kinds.
continually draws resources from nature, but not often we ask a fundamental question: are we sure that the use of these products is not faster than the time they need to regenerate? We are confident that our discharge Waste is not faster than the time required to them to be absorbed?
Unfortunately, today we know only too well the answers to these questions, modern society behaves as if nature were an expendable part of our economy. Over land use and waste production not only reduces the future productivity of the planet but could lead to the collapse of the entire ecosystem.
E 'now obvious to many the need to intervene and change our patterns of development, but to do so is first necessary to know in detail what the flows of matter and energy drawn from natural systems. We are far from sustainability, but how far? If we are not able to measure, we have the opportunity to act.
How, then, just consumes all of us?
E 'own attempt to provide an answer to this question that was born the concept of "Ecological Footprint . Who wants to read up in detail on the subject will also rely on what has now become a classic among texts that deal with sustainability, " The Ecological Footprint - Reducing the impact of man on Earth" (Edizioni Ambiente, €. 20.00) of Mathis Wackernagel and William E. Rees . These two ecologists were the originators of the concept in 1994 and published a first edition of this book in 1996 followed in the ensuing years other accompanied by the progressive updates. What exactly does this then
Footprint? It is a calculation tool that allows us to estimate the resource consumption and subsequent demand for assimilation of the waste by a specific human population and to express this quantity in terms of area (measured in hectares) of productive land equivalent. Thanks to the ecological
we can essentially determine how many resources we draw from the planet and what is the capacity (the biological capacity, in fact) of the planet to continue to provide. E Today we can do this calculation at all levels: from that which concerns the individual, until the Footprint of a city, a nation, a continent.
Today this method has undoubtedly its strong educational value and awareness of sustainability issues, is getting confirmations also important scientific and political (since 2000, the Ecological Footprint is an integral part of the biennial report of Living Planet Report United Nations Environment Programme. The European Union itself, he added, for some years now, the Ecological Footprint to 10 European local sustainability indicators). To provide uniformity of
then procedures to be global Ecological Footprint was born Global Footprint Network (website http://www.footprintnetwork.org/ ) coordinating the activities of the now hundreds of researchers involved in this method all over the world converge on the importance of the impression that as a way to increase public awareness of our impact on nature and our dependence on it.
We have said that the Ecological Footprint measures the consumption of natural resources by humans, or how much territory and how much biologically productive surface covered in water are used by an individual, a country, region to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb the waste it generates. It is then compared to nature's capacity to renew these resources.
For example, the footprint of a country is the total area required for:
- Making the food they eat
- Take the waste of its energy
- Provide space for infrastructure
More details are exactly 6 The main areas of consumption that will be considered for calculating the ecological footprint: the agricultural land, the pastures the forest areas, the areas fishing the Territory and built the so-called Land Energy (ie, the productive area needed to sequester the CO2 produced by the use of fossil fuels and sufficient to prevent the increase in atmospheric concentration of this gas).
usually proceed first to calculate the Ecological Footprint measuring in global hectares per capita (eg 'Italy 's ecological footprint equivalent to 4.9 hectares per capita ), then it is compared with what is biocapacity that territory always calculated in hectares per capita (in this case Italy is estimated to have a biological capacity equal to 1 hectare per capita), and finally we can deduce the ecological deficit (characteristic of industrialized countries) or the Ecological Reserve (still common in the case of low-income countries). L ' Italy, according to 2006 data, it appears to have a deficit , easily deduced from the data above, or of 3.9 hectares per capita! That every inhabitant, with the current way of life, resources consumed almost four times higher than those esteemed him!
for Today cope with the consumption of resources at current rates without affecting the sustainability of the Earth we need about another half a planet and always according to current rates of consumption, and the progressive increase in population, around 2040 the planet Earth will become necessary to us even 2!
course, as illustrated by the graph above is still possible to reverse this trend, provided to engage, together, to change their lifestyle by taking behavior and respectful.
To calculate your carbon footprint go to this address and double click the image that will appear, choose the area of \u200b\u200bthe planet in which you reside:
http://www.footprintnetwork.org/it/index.php / GFN / page / calculators /
wait a bit 'because the connection is slow ...
Alternatively, and thanks to our Friends of the WWF is now possible to calculate what our carbon footprint which remains the largest item among those taken into account for calculating the total footprint. Even in this case the calculation can be easily done by anyone. This is a partial calculation but still indicative of our lifestyles and consumption and help to understand our potential excesses in consumption.
Before we proceed to this count, some recommendations. You must munirvi advance of certain vital information:
- bills of electricity and fuel gas last year
- How many miles does with your car in a year
- How many grams of CO2 you emit car per kilometer (it can detect or vehicle registration, or are linked to your car your car).
To calculate the 'carbon footprint click: http://www.improntawwf.it/main.php
Finally, for young people, I found an American website where you can always just amazing calculate impressions fun immersed in a kaleidoscope of images and colored drawings. Of course the website is all in English but may represent a further opportunity to deepen their knowledge of the language. For
found under: http://kidsfootprint.org/
fun and especially good reflection ...
Michele Salvadori
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