The carbon Footprint is 50 percent of humanity’s overall Ecological Footprint and its most rapidly-growing component. Reducing humanity’s carbon Footprint is the most essential step we can take to end overshoot and live within the means of our planet.
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Today, the term “carbon footprint” is often used as shorthand for the amount of carbon (usually in tonnes) being emitted by an activity or organization. The carbon component of the Ecological Footprint takes a slightly differing approach, translating the amount of carbon dioxide into the amount of productive land and sea area required to sequester carbon dioxide emissions. This tells us the demand on the planet that results from burning fossil fuels. Measuring it in this way offers a few key advantages.
The Footprint framework encourages us to address the problem of climate change in a way that will not simply transfer demand from one critical resource to another. It attacks the underlying causes of climate change (and of species loss, deforestation, soil erosion, water shortage and other problems) rather than the symptoms by addressing the expanding human metabolism of nature’s services.
When we look at carbon in isolation, the problem appears as a “tragedy of the commons” (we pollute our collective atmosphere in order to advance our individual/national wealth.) But the picture changes when we see the carbon problem as part of an overall resource crunch – a symptom of human pressure on resources reaching a critical tipping point. The concentration of carbon in our atmosphere is the most prominent resource issue we face. But there are others as well. Access to freshwater resources, food security, forest resources, biodiversity, oil – all of these are under threat. We are entering an era of “peak everything.”
Ironically, rather than being overwhelming, the “peak everything” perspective actually makes the problem easier to solve because it presents a clear self-interest motive for unilateral government action, at country, state, and city levels.
The Ecological Footprint and Climate Change
Global climate change is one of humanity’s greatest challenges; addressing it is key to our long-term well-being and the continued vitality of our societies. As we move forward to address this urgent threat, international agreements will be crucial if we are to reverse our perilous course. Yet, it is also key that governments recognize the importance of acting decisively regardless of what others are doing.
As human pressure on resources escalates, those cities, states and countries with the least carbon-intensive, most resource-efficient economies will flourish, while those requiring cheap and plentiful access to ecological services will become extremely vulnerable and will lose out. It therefore in the interest of any city, state or country that wishes to continue to be competitive and provide for the well-being of its population to act first and act boldly.
When we view carbon within the broader context of the Footprint framework, it becomes clear: aggressive sustainability policies are not a romantic gift to Mother Nature or abstract humanity that come at the expense of citizens’ quality of life. Indeed, they are the only way a high quality of life can be secured.
