GEF

Unit 2  |  Humanity’s Ecological Footprint 37 A per capita ecological footprint is the average environmen- tal impact of one person in a specific country or area. Ecological footprint is expressed as the per capita land area required, in global hectares (gha). Land use is measured for all homes and buildings, farming, natural resources, and waste areas. For example, the U.S. has a per capita ecological footprint of 9.0 gha, while China has a per capita footprint of 1.8 gha. The Global Footprint Network (GFN) measures ecological footprint by calculating the number of Earths it takes to provide the resources people consume. According to GNF, right now that is about 1.6 Earths every year, but the number continues to rise. The global trend toward increased consumption of resources and pollution is worsening the ecological deficit . For example, if everyone in the world lived as those in the United States, we would need 5.1 Earths worth of resources to support us each year. global ecological footprints, selected countries U.S. 5.1 CHINA 2.2 GERMANY 4.2 INDONESIA 0.9 U.K. 4.6 INDIA 1.4 Ecological footprints provide a metric for understanding consump- tion around the world. © Global Footprint Network 2016. National Footprint Accounts, 2016 Edition. Licensed and provided solely for informational purposes. Contact Global Footprint Network at foot- printnetwork.org to obtain more information. PER CAPITA ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT A measure of average eco- logical footprint per person, usually by country. ECOLOGICAL DEFICIT A situation in which eco- logical footprint exceeds biocapacity, resulting in ecological degradation.