“Campaign for Change”

Poster ContestBy Mrs. Shaw

What do you think the term “ecological footprint” means?

After you are done answering this please start organizing your notebook for the notebook check on Thursday

Opening Assignment

The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems.

It is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet's ecological capacity to regenerate.

In short, it is the measure of how fast we are using up our natural resources (land, fuel, trees, water) with a prediction of how long the resources will last based on this rate.

What is the Ecological Footprint?

It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to supply the resources a human population consumes, and to assimilate associated waste.

Using this assessment, it is possible to estimate how much of the Earth(or how many planet Earths) it would take to support humanity if everybody followed a given lifestyle.

What does the Ecological Footprint measure?

For 2007, humanity's total ecological footprint was estimated at 1.5 planet Earths; that is, humanity uses ecological services 1.5 times as quickly as Earth can renew them.

Every year, this number is recalculated to incorporate the three-year lag due to the time it takes for the United Nations to collect and publish statistics and relevant research.

What are the numbers?

The Ecological Footprint is a resource accounting tool used by governments, businesses, educational institutions and NGOs to answer a specific resource question:

◦How fast are we using up our natural

resources?

A carbon footprint is a subset of the ecological footprint.

What is it used for?

Explain how you felt after watching the video “The Human Footprint” yesterday about our impact on the Earth’s resources.

An introduction to ecological footprinting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXXbAXG4zwA

Opening Assignment Day 2

http://teachersites.schoolworld.com/webpages/KShaw2/environmental.cfm?subpage=1774863

The Project (Contest)

How would buying less affect our resources? Your life?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmyYpWW8GeU

Opening Assignment Day 3