Environmental Issues

When we are living in this world, it is obvious that we will need the ecosystem of the earth so that we can survive. We will need the earth for food, shelter and practically all the other activities that we may be in need of so that we can be able to live well. A measure of all those demands on the earth is what is referred to as the ecological footprints. There is the capacity that the planet earth can produce and there are the levels of demand that we as human beings have. This comparison is given by the ecological footprints. In other words, the ecological footprints may be said to be a representation of the size of the sea and the land that is biologically productive which is very crucial for the resources regeneration which are consumed by the human population.  (www.nwf.org)

In addition it is also responsible for the absorption of the waste which helps to make the world harmless. It is therefore possible using this means to measure the capacity of the earth. However, there is an assumption that is made that everyone lives a certain level of lifestyle. This value is usually calculated every year but it takes about three years for the values to be fully calculated because of the time it takes the responsible bodies to collect the information and then publish all the gathered statistics. Out of this calculation, it has been clear that he human beings uses the earth resources one and a third times more than the earth can renew them. (spectrum.ieee.org)

The major factors that are used in the ecological footprints are the earth resource that human beings are known to relate with on daily basis. Some of the major factors may be the very crucial resources on the earth such as the sea, the land and the entire environment. Among the factors that are used in the environment are the earths forms of energy such as the coal, oil and so on and the climate. Another factor that is used in this study is the land. This is because it is the one which is responsible for offering human beings food, shelter and all the other activities that human beings may be in need of. Another factor that is crucial in this case is the human population. This is what the study mainly uses so that it can come up with the figures of sustainability.  (www.nwf.org)

Most of the very important resource in the world happen to be non renewable. In addition, those which are renewable take a lot of time before they come back. This means that after some time, we will run out of these resources. There is therefore a need to know the type of resources that we are dealing with. This is the only way that we will be able to know whether the type of resource is renewable or not. Through this study, it is possible to know the rate of usage that human beings have. This way, human being is able to prepare with alternative form of resources in case the current ones are depleted. A good example is oil which recent studies are saying that it is getting depleted. This means that after some time, there will be a problem of fuel. This has resulted to human beings looking for an alternative form of energy which would substitute oil. (Hari Srinivas.)

Some of the advantages of using simple measures such as ecological footprints are that through this measure, human beings are able to know the size and the capacities of the world. This way, they are able to plan for the future and thus they are able to avoid many disasters that may be there if the study was not there. For instance, through the use of ecological footprint, human beings are able predict when the whole world may run out of fossil fuel. This way, they have been able to research and come up with some other forms of energy which will substitute this when it happens.  (Hari Srinivas.)

Through these simple measures, human beings have been able to take some necessary measures to conserve their environment. They have been able to know what causes the major destruction to the environment and therefore take the necessary measures. If this study was not there, it would have been difficult to know this and at the end the environment would be seriously destroyed by some of our activities thereby making the earth unable to support us.  (www.nwf.org)

Some of the other advantages are that there can be a link that can be easily made between the global and the local consumption, it is possible to make a sustainability assessment it is also possible to assess the relationship that exists between different environmental impacts on resources. The reason behind this is that the values that are used in this measure are based on ecological realities instead of basing them on arbitrary weightings. (Hari Srinivas.)

However, there are some disadvantages that are associated with this simple measure. The first one is that there is a lot of aggregation that is done and this is known to sometimes simplify facts. In addition, the assumption and also some proxies that are used in deriving results in a footprint happen not to be apparent all the time. There are also many times when the calculations that are done are hampered by poor philosophical boundary issues coupled with availability of very poor data. This measure is also said to put more emphasis on the resources rather than on the population in an area.  (spectrum.ieee.org)

There are some measures that I will need to employ so that I can reduce my ecological footprint. One of the main reason as to why the measure is very high is for my use of firewood. I will stop making bonfire and I will only make it when it is really necessary. This way, I will have saved the forest which is the source of our water. In addition, I will also reduce on my usage of plastic bags. I usually use plastic bags and dispose the off, I will shift to using a container to carry my stuff. This way, I will have saved on the environment and avoid those bags which happen to be inorganic. I will also make a plan to shift from the current fossil fuels use in the house and the use of electric power to use the solar energy. The reason is that the solar energy is less expensive and at the same time it has no carbon emission which is known to have a major impact on the environment due to global warming. (spectrum.ieee.org)