Why is This Important?
All human activities depend on the biological support of nature. An Ecological Footprint is a method for measuring a population's use of natural resources. It measures the area of land and water a population requires to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb the waste it produces. When a population has a
footprint exceeding the area available to replenish its resources, it draws down the natural inventory of those resources. If a society continues to consume more natural resources than can be produced by nature over a long period of time, the ultimate sustainability of that society may be in question.
What is a Sustainable State?
A sustainable state is one where society's demand upon nature is in balance with nature's productive and regenerative capacity, and each person has access to the natural resources
necessary to sustain his or her needs.
How Are We Doing?
• In the 2006, the global per capita Ecological Footprint was 6.4 acres. This is a slight reduction from the 6.7 acres reported in 2005, but still signifi cantly higher than the global per capita footprint in 2003 (5.5 acres per capita). Among high income countries, the per capita Ecological Footprint declined for the second straight year, from 15.7 acres per person to 15.0 acres per person. Both cropland and carbon footprints were down for high income countries in 2006.
• The global per capita biocapacity (the capacity of the Earth to regenerate and provide resources to the population) stood at 4.5 acres in 2006, a reduction from 2005 when it stood at 5.1 acres. The global "overshoot" of 1.9 acres is higher than in both 2003 and 2005.
• In 2006, the U.S. per capita Ecological Footprint was 22.3 acres, over three times the average global footprint. The U.S. per capita footprint has decreased slightly since 2005.
• In 2001, the last year for which a footprint analysis was completed, the Ecological Footprint for San Mateo County was 20.9 acres per person, slightly below the national average, but still signifi cantly above the world and high income country average.
• The largest component of the county's footprint was energy, accounting for over 13 acres, or 63 percent of the total footprint.
• Crop land for food production is the next largest component of the county's footprint, with each San Mateo resident requiring approximately 3.4 acres of crop land for food production for one year. With a population of 750,000 in 2009, this equates to about 2.55 million acres of cropland required to support the needs of county residents. (For reference, there are about 287,000 acres of land in San Mateo County).
