Our Footprint

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In 1965, there were 3.3 billion people on earth. Since then another 3.5 billion people have been added to the planet. World Pop is currently 6,850,000,000 and increasing by 146 every minute....
Calculators...
www.epa.gov	Environmental Protection Agency's 'Personal' Emissions Calculator to obtain an estimate of your personal greenhouse gas emissions or your family’s greenhouse gas emissions. Then move on to the next section of the calculator to explore actions you and/or your family can take to lower your emissions while reducing your energy and waste disposal costs.
www.epa.gov	Environmental Protection Agency’s 'household' greenhouse gas emissions calculator.
www.safeclimate.net	World Resources Institute's Safe Climate carbon footprint calculator allows you to determine carbon dioxide emissions from major sources: home energy consumption and transportation by car and plane.
www.eatlowcarbon.org	Bon Appetit. Compare the carbon effects of your food choices. Drop and drag your food items into the frying pan and calculate your impact.
www.waterfootprint.org	Water Footprint Calculator (personal)- defined as the total amount of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by an individual as a result of its own consumption patterns and country of residence.
www.bp.com	BP Energy Calculator shows the amount of carbon dioxide emissions from major sources: home energy consumption and transportation by car and plane. This tool will help you to understand your energy profile and estimate your carbon footprint. It shows you how different choices can result in energy savings and a smaller carbon footprint. Flash Animation.
www.carbonfootprint.com	Carbon Footprint Calculator. Home or Business. UK Company.
www.infinitepower.org	Texas State Energy Conservation Office's interactive calculators help you understand energy production and consumption in a whole new way. Use them to develop a personal profile of your own energy use.
On average, one American consumes as much energy as: 2 Japanese 6 Mexicans 13 Chinese 31 Indians 128 Bangladeshis 307 Tanzanians 370 Ethiopians www.mindfully.org
Consumer Footprint:
www.nationalgeographic.com	Greendex.  National Geographic and the international polling firm GlobeScan are measuring and monitoring consumer progress toward environmentally sustainable consumption in 14 countries around the world. Greendex ranks the performance of individual consumers, rather than countries as a whole.
The water footprint for one A4-sheet of paper is 10 litres! www.waterfootprint.org
Ecological Footprints:       (for water see water category below...)
www.footprintnetwork.org	Global Footprint Network serves as the steward of the National Footprint Accounts, the calculation system that measures the ecological resource use and resource capacity of nations over time. Measures how much land and water area a human population requires to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb its wastes, using prevailing technology. ***
www.panda.org	Humanity's Ecological Footprint. 1961-2005. World Wildlife Fund. "Effectively, the Earth’s regenerative capacity can no longer keep up with demand – people are turning resources into waste faster than nature can turn waste back into resources."  ***
sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu	Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University. The map gallery contains sample maps for the continental Human Footprint and Human Influence Index. ***
www.earthday.net	Ecological Footprint Quiz estimates how much productive land and water you need to support what you use and what you discard. How many planets do you use? EarthDay Network.
"More babies were born in the United States in 2007 than in any other year in American history, according to data from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. The 4,317,000 births in 2007 edged out the figure for 1957, at the height of the baby boom." www.populationpress.org
Population:
www.worldpopulationbalance.org	World Population Balance. Footprints per Country.  Population Education. Population Counters, Population and Energy Consumption, etc...
Reports:
assets.panda.org	World Wildlife Fund's The Living Planet Report is WWF's periodic update on the state of the world's ecosystems. "Living Planet Report 2008" confirms that we are using the planet’s resources faster than they can be renewed. Our footprint exceeds the world’s ability to regenerate by about 25 per cent. Lots of graphs, data, resources. PDF.***
www.waterfootprint.org	Water Footprint Network. Long list of resources, journal articles, papers, reports as to water use.
www.millenniumassessment.org	The Condition and Trends Working Group's Current State & Trends Assessment found that over the past 50 years, humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable period of time in human history, largely to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fiber and fuel. This has resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on Earth. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
Resources:
www.footprintnetwork.org	Ecological Footprint- clocks humanity’s demand on nature. Together with its partners, the Network coordinates research, develops methodological standards, and provides decision makers with   resource accounts to help the human economy operate within the Earth’ s ecological limits. It measures how much land and water area a human population requires to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb its wastes, using prevailing technology.  Footprint Basics - Overview.
www.footprintnetwork.org	Ecological Footprint- clocks humanity’s demand on nature. List of resources used for calculations.
www.millenniumassessment.org	Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was called for by the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2000, the objective of the MA was to assess the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being and the scientific basis for action needed to enhance the conservation and sustainable use of those systems and their contribution to human well-being.
'Each year Americans throw away over 18 billion disposable diapers, 2.7 billion batteries and 7.5 million Television sets.' cbc.amnh.org
Vehicles:
www.epa.gov	U.S. Environmental Protection Agency developed a series of four fact sheets to facilitate consistency of assumptions and practices in the calculation of emissions of greenhouse gases from transportation and mobile sources. They are intended as a reference for anyone estimating emissions benefits of mobile sources air pollution control programs.
Water Footprints:
www.waterfootprint.org	Water Footprint Network. National water footprints, corporate water footprints, product footprints (see below), case studies of coffee and tea, and cotton, international flows of virtual water, savings or excess use of water due to trade, water footprint per unit of energy, etc. UNESCO et al. ***
www.waterfootprint.org	Water Footprint Network- Choose a product and find its water footprint. Food, cars, clothes, paper. ***
www.gdrc.org	Global Development Research Center- an independent nonprofit think tank. Water footprint facts. Good explanantion of "virtual water" which measures how water is embedded in the production and trade of food and consumer products.
The U.S. with just five percent of the world's population consumes 23% of its energy!
Financial Times Comment, June 11, 2008 Response to Martin Wolf by Jeffrey Sachs: "The biosphere does not come packaged according to the assumptions of neoclassical economics. What we call externalities are the norms, not the exception. In ecosystems, the nutrients, carbon, water, nitrogen, energy, and species (including ours) are in flux. There are spatial migrations and temporal flows and interactions which make a lie of the underlying assumptions of “private” property. A farmer that encloses his farm, or drains groundwater, or introduces an invasive species, or puts on chemical pesticides, or replaces high biodiversity with a commercial monoculture, has pervasive effects on a whole ecosystem. These are, by nature, not fenced in his enclosure. None of this mattered in the extreme perhaps when the Earth was still populated by 1 billion of us, or perhaps even 2 or 3 billion. When local systems failed, there were new ecological niches to conquer. Yet in the past 250 years, the population has risen nearly tenfold. There are no more places to flee. And ecosystems everywhere are under profound threat." www.earth.columbia.edu
The CO2 tons emitted by the average American's different activities: # Average footprint for driving - 6 tons. This is equivalent to the emissions from 672 gallons of gas. Offsetting it is equivalent to 151 tree seedlings growing for ten years. Each gallon of gas saved reduces CO2 emissions by 20 pounds. Saving 100 gallons reduces CO2 emissions by 1 ton. # Average footprint for short, medium and long haul flights - 1,2,3 tons respectively. # Average footprint from electricity and natural gas use - 4 tons. # Average American's total footprint - 20 tons. This is equivalent to the emissions from 46 barrels of oil." LiveNeutral www.liveneutral.org/carbonoffsets
Apartment v. Private Home "In New York City the energy used in an 800 square foot apartment can release as much as 11,000 pounds of carbon dioxide in one year. Every year the typical American home releases more than eight tons of carbon dioxide into the air through its use of electricity and heating fuels." American Museum of Natural History cbc.amnh.org