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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 6 page research paper that, first of all, defines what is meant by "ecological footprint." This is an innovative statistical model used to measure how a specific community or country impacts the environment. The writer explores the uses for this model, as well as summarizing the arguments against it, and concludes that the model is sound and could provide the much needed motivation to promote ecologically responsible behavior in the industrialized countries. Bibliography lists 6 sources.
Page Count:
6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khecoftp.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
country impacts the environment (Holtzman, 1999) Rees (1999) points out that every dairy farmer knows, down to few square meters, how much pasture land is required to support each of
his cows and precisely how many head of cattle he can safely graze on the "back forty." Yet, the Cartesian dualism that underlies Western philosophy and science persists in separating
humanity from the rest of the natural world. As Rees explains, humanity has been so successful in psychologically separating itself from nature that "we simply dont conceive of ourselves as
ecological beings, as creatures of the land" (1999, p. B4). The creation of the ecological footprint model may serve to alleviate this Western mental handicap. Not surprisingly, the Western
countries, with their industrialized societies, have the largest "footprints," using a disproportionate amount of the worlds resources. Experts calculate that the richest countries in the world have roughly 20 percent
of the global population, yet are responsible for 80 percent of total private consumption. This contrasts sharply with the very poorest countries, which are responsible for a mere 1.3 percent
of private resource consumption (Hinrichsen, 2002). Wackernagel and Rees model considers factors that were not previously considered in statistical analysis of resource use. For example, their "footprint" model takes into
consideration how rich countries use trade and technology to import resource they do not possess (Holtzman, 1999). Other factors considered include a nations consumption of food, housing, transportation,
consumer goods, and services, as well as the use of fossil energy, land degradation, and how much garden, crop, pasture and forest space it takes to produce the products that
consumers demand (Holtzman, 1999). According to their model, Wakernagel and Rees determined that hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia runs an "ecological deficit" (Holtzman, 1999). According to 1991 figures, the
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