What Is the Ecological Footprint?

◎Micky

什么是生態(tài)足跡？你的生態(tài)足跡是多少呢？閱讀文章后你可以進(jìn)入https://www.footprintcalculator.org/home/en 進(jìn)行測(cè)試。

Humans need food, shelter and heating (in some locations)to survive.Our planet’s ecological resources help fulfill these needs.But how many resources do we1)consume?This question can be answered using the Ecological Footprint.

Just as a bank statement tracks income against2)expenditures, Ecological Footprint accounting measures a population’s demand for natural ecosystems’ supply of resources and services.

On the demand side, the Ecological Footprint measures an individual or a population’s demand for plant-based food and3)fiber products, livestock and fish products, timber and other forest products, space for urban infrastructure, and forest to absorb its carbon dioxide emissions from4)fossil fuels.

On the supply side, a city,or nation’s biocapacity represents its biologically productive land and sea area, including forest lands, grazing lands, cropland, fishing grounds, and builtup land.

The Ecological Footprint can be calculated for a single individual, city, country and the entire planet.

The gap between the Ecological Footprint and biocapacity is determined by several factors.Personal Ecological Footprint is the product of how much we use and how efficiently this is being produced.The biocapacity per person is determined by how many hectares of productive area there is, how productive each hectare is, and how many people (in a city, country, or the world) share this biocapacity.

Many countries are “in the red”, which means they use more natural resources (Ecological Footprint) than their ecosystems can regenerate (biocapacity).When a country’s biocapacity is greater than its population’s Ecological Footprint, on the other hand, the country boasts an “ecological reserve”.

Nations (also cities) can run ecological deficits by liquidating their own resources, such as by overfishing; and emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than their own ecosystems can absorb.

What is Earth Overshoot Day?

When the entire planet is running an ecological deficit, we call it “overshoot”.At the global level, ecological deficits and overshoot are the same, since there is no net import of resources to the planet.

Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services (Ecological Footprint)in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year (biocapacity).

Overshoot occurs when:

HUMANITY’S ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT > EARTH’S BIOCAPACITY

1) consumev.消耗

2) expendituren.經(jīng)費(fèi)；支出額

3) fibern.纖維

4) fossiln.化石

人類(lèi)需要食物、住所和供暖（在某些地方）才能生存。我們地球上的生態(tài)資源有助于滿(mǎn)足這些需求。但是我們消耗了多少資源？這個(gè)問(wèn)題可以使用“生態(tài)足跡”來(lái)回答。

正如銀行對(duì)賬單可以計(jì)算收入與支出一樣，生態(tài)足跡衡量的是人口對(duì)自然生態(tài)系統(tǒng)提供的資源和服務(wù)供應(yīng)的需求。

在需求方面，生態(tài)足跡衡量個(gè)人或人口對(duì)植物性食品和纖維產(chǎn)品、牲畜和魚(yú)類(lèi)產(chǎn)品、木材和其他林產(chǎn)品、城市基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施空間以及森林吸收化石燃料產(chǎn)生的二氧化碳排放的需求。

在供應(yīng)方面，一個(gè)城市或國(guó)家的生物承載力代表其具有生物生產(chǎn)力的土地和海洋面積，包括林地、牧場(chǎng)、農(nóng)田、漁場(chǎng)和建成地。生態(tài)足跡可以針對(duì)個(gè)人、城市、國(guó)家和整個(gè)地球進(jìn)行計(jì)算。

生態(tài)足跡和生物承載力之間的差距由幾個(gè)因素決定。個(gè)人生態(tài)足跡是指?jìng)€(gè)人的使用量和其生產(chǎn)效率的乘積。人均生物承載力取決于有多少公頃的生產(chǎn)面積、每公頃的生產(chǎn)力以及有多少人（在一個(gè)城市、國(guó)家或世界上）共享這種生物承載力。

許多國(guó)家處于“赤字狀態(tài)”，這意味著它們使用的自然資源（生態(tài)足跡）超過(guò)了其生態(tài)系統(tǒng)可以再生（生物承載力）的程度。另一方面，當(dāng)一個(gè)國(guó)家的生物承載力大于其人口的生態(tài)足跡時(shí)，該國(guó)就擁有“生態(tài)盈余”。

國(guó)家（城市也一樣）“變賣(mài)”自己的資源可能會(huì)產(chǎn)生生態(tài)赤字，例如過(guò)度捕撈，向大氣中排放超過(guò)其自身生態(tài)系統(tǒng)吸收能力的二氧化碳。

什么是地球生態(tài)超載日？

當(dāng)整個(gè)地球都出現(xiàn)生態(tài)赤字時(shí)，我們稱(chēng)為“超載”。在全球范圍內(nèi)，生態(tài)赤字和超載是相同的，因?yàn)榈厍蛏蠜](méi)有凈進(jìn)口資源。

地球生態(tài)超載日是指人類(lèi)一年對(duì)生態(tài)資源和服務(wù)的需求（生態(tài)足跡）超過(guò)地球在該年可以再生的（生物承載力）程度的那一日。

在以下情況下會(huì)發(fā)生超載：

人類(lèi)的生態(tài)足跡＞地球的生物承載力