Treading Heavily on the Environment: China's Growing Eco-
Footprint Highlighted in New Report photo by Sheila via flickr
We've written about the concept of Eco-Footprint a number of
times--what it is, how to calculate it, and how to reduce yours
--and with the Olympics upon us it comes as no surprise that
China's environmental footprint might come into the spotlight. A
new report by the Global Footprint Network, WWF, and the China
Council for International Cooperation on Environment and
Development does just that. While China is the obvious focus,
really this report highlights how humanity as a whole is
increasingly overshooting the biological capacity of the planet.
It also includes recommended steps that China can take to
address the issue of its increasingly heavy environmental
impact.China Has Low Individual Footprint, But High National
FootprintWhat the report finds is that, per capita, China ranks
69th in the world, with each person requiring 1.6 hectares of
biocapacity to support them. This is lower than