Glossary Kopbaeva Laura f1101

Ecological capacity The overall ability of an ecosystem to maintain its natural, original, or current condition and to produce goods and services. This includes both the current stock and the ability of an ecosystem to produce more of a specific resource. This includes surface and subsurface renewable resources. This includes both land and ocean ecosystems.

Ecological capacity categories

1. Air Capacity - The ability water resources to maintain the ecosystem in its natural, original, or current state. This includes: (1) the capacity of the water to provide oxygen and water to the biota and carry off Carbon Dioxide from the biota in the ecosystem; (2) both man-made and naturally occurring substances found in air that interact with water and soil, each other, and biota to produce adverse or undesirable affects. This does not include waste products managed by man, which fall under Man-made Capital.

2. Biodiversity Capacity - The ability of an ecosystem to naturally maintain a mix of biota (flora and fauna). This includes the variety of ecosystems, the species within an ecosystem, and the genetic variations within an ecosystem. This applies to all land and ocean ecosystems.

3. Contribution to Global System: The ability of an ecosystem to affect the behavior of global subsystems, specifically, the global atmosphere (weather and climate) and oceans.

4. Cultural and Spiritual Capacity: The ability of ecosystems to provide for the spiritual and cultural needs of society.

5. Human Habitat Capacity: The ability of an ecosystem to provide space and resources to support human habitations. Habitations include buildings, structures, roads, dams, power lines, and other such human-made capital.

6. Productive Capacity - The ability of an ecosystem to produce the raw materials necessary for economic activities. This includes: (1) all renewable resources, such as agricultural products, fibers, foodstuffs, timber, water, etc.; (2) all renewable resources found both on and below the surface of the Ecosystem.

7. Soil Capacity: The ability of the local soil resources to maintain the ecosystem in its natural, original, or current state. This includes: (1) the capacity of the soil to provide nutrients and minerals to the biota in the ecosystem; (2) the amount of soil available for use by an ecosystem. (3) both man-made and naturally occurring substances found in soil that interact with water and air, each other, and biota to produce adverse or undesirable affects. This does not include waste products managed by man, which fall under Man-made Capital.

8. Water Capacity: The ability water resources to maintain the ecosystem in its natural, original, or current state. This includes: (1) the capacity of the water to provide nutrients and minerals to the biota in the ecosystem; (2) the amount of water available for use by the ecosystem; (3) both man-made and naturally occurring substances found in water that interact with soil and air, each other, and biota to produce adverse or undesirable affects. This does not include waste products managed by man, which fall under Man-made Capital.

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. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to supply the resources a human population consumes, and to mitigate 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. For 2006, humanity's total ecological footprint was estimated at 1.4 planet Earths – in other words, humanity uses ecological services 1.4 times as fast as Earth can renew them. Every year, this number is recalculated — with a three year lag due to the time it takes for the UN to collect and publish all the underlying statistics.

Footprint consumption: The most commonly reported type of Ecological Footprint. It is the area used to support a defined population's consumption. The consumption Footprint (in gha) includes the area needed to produce the materials consumed and the area needed to absorb the carbon dioxide emissions. The consumption Footprint of a nation is calculated in the National Footprint Accounts as a nation's primary production Footprint plus the Footprint of imports minus the Footprint of exports, and is thus, strictly speaking, a Footprint of apparent consumption. The national average or per capita Consumption Footprint is equal to a country's Consumption Footprint divided by its population.

Production Footprint (also primary demand) : In contrast to the consumption Footprint, a nation's primary production Footprint is the sum of the Footprints for all of the resources harvested and all of the CO2 emissions generated within the defined geographical region. This includes all the area within a country necessary for supporting the actual harvest of primary products (cropland, pasture land, forestland and fishing grounds), the country's built-up area (roads, factories, cities), and the area needed to absorb all fossil fuel carbon emissions generated within the country. In other words, the forest Footprint represents the area necessary to regenerate all the timber harvested (hence, depending on harvest rates, this area can be bigger or smaller than the forest area that exists within the country). Or, for example, if a country grows cotton for export, the ecological resources required are not included in that country's consumption Footprint; rather, they are included in the consumption Footprint of the country that imports the t-shirts. However, these ecological resources are included in the exporting country's primary production Footprint.

Carbon Footprint : When used in Ecological Footprint studies, this term is synonymous with demand on carbon uptake land. NOTE: The phrase “Carbon Footprint” or “carbon footprint” has been picked up in the climate change debate. There are several calculators that use the phrase “Carbon Footprint”, but many just calculate tonnes of carbon, or tonnes of carbon per euro, rather than demand on bioproductive area.

My Footprint: If everyone will be like me, we need 2.3 Planet Earth to provide enough resource. I use 54% of food, 24% of services, 13% of goods, shelter 6%, mobility 3%. To support my lifestyle, it takes 4.1 global hectares of the Earth’s productive area.