Subject Guide
Measuring trends in resource consumption, including individual, national and global ecological footprints
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Make sure you understand what is meant by ecological footprints and how they are calculated. Check that you can explain it clearly to another person. Why is it important? Why might it be something in which individuals and governments might/should be interested? |
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1. What is your ecological footprint?
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Click on the link on the left to open the ecological footprint calculator. Calculate your own ecological footprint and compare with others in the class. What do we learn? How big are the contrasts? Where do the contrasts come from? |
2. Comparing the ecological footprint of countries
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The Open Data section of the Ecological Footprint website (click on the image on the right) allows us to investigate global patterns of ecological footprints on a national scale.
Use the website to compare a range of countries. You should include: Indonesia, Niger, China, USA, Kiribati, the "home" countries of everyone in the room plus one or two other countries of your choice. Examine the patterns. Compare Ecological Footprint total with Ecological Footprint per person - why the contrasts? |
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Now look at ALL countries:
- Which countries have the highest ecological footprints per person? Why?
- Which countries have the lowest? Why?
- What about ecological footprint per person?