Abstract: Our Ecological Footprint, Chapter 1

According to the authors of Our Ecological Footprint, Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees, the Ecological Footprint analysis is an effectual tool for measuring various aspects of mankind’s impact on the planet. Exploration of this impact is facilitated through abstract examples of both mankind’s necessity for and impact on nature. Wackernagel and Rees proceed to suggest that the analysis method can help formulate possible future situations that mankind may face.

Although the fact is hidden from most individuals by city life, mankind is dependent on nature to some degree. A constant transfer of energy between man and nature is embodied in common acts such as eating, drinking, and breathing. To further connect man with nature, the authors assert that nature fulfills humans’ basic requirements for life: absorbing wastes, controlling climates, and providing protection. On the psychological plane, nature also fulfills mental requirements of exhilaration and relaxation.

In the same way that nature affects man, man affects nature; an "ecological footprint" is a model for this idea. According to the authors, man’s ecological footprint on nature, or the amount of land man uses for survival, is enlarged beyond necessity by the typical view that the environment is expendable. For example, most civilizations possess a footprint that regularly and often callously degregates land with roads and buildings, rendering it unfit for natural production. Just as entire civilizations possess a footprint, it can be said that each individual also uses up a certain amount of land for survival and thus possesses an ecological footprint of his own.

Along the same lines, the footprint analysis can extend mankind’s impact on nature into the future with educated guesses. The authors assert that mankind must only use resources as fast as they can be replenished, and must likewise only discard waste as fast as it can be absorbed. Furthermore, common sense demands that the collection of all individual footprints cannot exceed the available natural land existing on earth.