3.1.3 Ecological footprints

Content

Geographic inquiry and concept(s)
- How global development processes affect resource availability and consumption
Geographic knowledge and understanding
- Measuring trends in resource consumption, including individual, national and global ecological footprints
Case study or detailed examples
- Neither required by the syllabus
Aims of this lesson
- Be able to explain how resource consumption can be measured
- Be able to evaluate ecological footprints as a measure of resource consumption
- Be able to describe trends in individual, national and global ecological footprints
- Be able to link ‘development’ to changes in ecological footprint

Exclusive: The climate cost is more than than the combined 2023 emissions of Costa Rica and Estonia, study finds

The Guardian · 30 May 2025

Carbon footprint
- A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide and methane) that are generated by our actions.

Ecological footprint
- The theoretical measurement of the amount of land and water a population requires to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb its waste under prevailing technology.

Water footprint
- The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume of fresh water used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business.

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Explain one reason why global water consumption has increased over the past 50 years. [2]
Explain how the concept of embedded water reveals hidden patterns of water consumption between countries. [2]
Changes in global food consumption patterns are a greater cause of greenhouse gas emissions than industrial development. To what extent do you agree with this statement? [10]