Measurement of Ecological Footprint and Sustainable Development

The study focuses on the measurement of ecological footprint with the world food fund and its relationship with sustainable development. It considers several indicators like forest, greenhouse gases, injustices, human rights, extreme effects of weather conditions, rising sea level and ways of recycling reusing renewable energy sources and non-renewable sources.

GEOGRAPHY
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Part 1: Organic Footprint
Abstract
The study focuses on the measurement of ecological footprint with the world food fund.
It tends to establish the relationship between ecological footprint and a sustainable development
by considering several indicators like a forest, greenhouse gases, injustices, human rights,
extreme effects of weather conditions, rising sea level and ways of recycling reusing renewable
energy sources and non-renewable sources. It shows the effects of human activities on the
environment.
a) Measure of Ecological footprint with World Food Fund Calculator
The planet Earth supports life and therefore is the dwelling place of human beings. It also
supports the life of various ecosystems too. Due to its nature, humans can identify their
sustainable wants and establish a better means of survival. This, therefore, affects the ecological
ecosystem and it's surrounding forming the basis of ecological footprint. In the previous years,

the ecological footprint was solely established to measure the usage of resources produced and
consumption-cycle internationally (Fang, Heijungs, & de Snoo, 2014).
There has been a growing demand for goods and services generated from earth’s
resources which have surpassed what can be recycled from planet’s ecosystems. For instance,
Land is an important natural resource that is used for food production hence influences
humanity’s consumption cycle. Activities carried out by humans have a bigger influence on how
they consume the earth's resources and production of wastes as a result. It is from this
perspective that ecological footprint calculation is founded and used extensively for global
assessment on the impacts of the environment. Ecological footprint, therefore, measures the
quantity usage of biologically-productive earth’s resources like land, water etc. and its available
space. The study of the ecological footprint is globally useful in the assessment of sustainability
and development goals. It is a better tool for measuring and managing earth’s resources for
various global economies (Al-Mulali, et al 2015). The ecological footprint is measured in world's
scales, country's scales, city's scales, and individual scales.
Ecological footprint calculation plays a pivotal role in the consumer-based sector. By
calculation, total quantity demanded by a country is given by the function; C=P+I-X. Where,
P=production, I=imports, and X=exports. This principle is applicable to several established
countries. Developed nations do have a stable population hence high index of well-being. This
makes them consume a lot of resources which in the end has a corresponding increase in their
ecological footprint (Galli et al., 2014).

b) Organic footprint combined with Sustainable Development
Greenhouse Gases
Increased human activities have exerted a lot of pressure on the ecological environmental
systems. This has resulted in a global climate change through the emission of greenhouse gases
into the atmosphere and caused a lot of environmental impacts. To help solve this, the country
should ensure sustainable development by focusing primarily on the reduction of greenhouse gas
emissions and coming up with other measures to reduce such emissions (Weinzettel et al., 2014).
Renewable and Non-renewable energy sources
Proper waste management is equally key to a sustainable development. This can be
achieved by recycling the renewable energy sources and disposing of properly the non-renewable
energy sources that cannot be recycled. A proper policy guideline is necessary for better
enactment, implementation, and compliance of the wastes generated.
Rising Sea level
The intense increase of human activities on the environment has contributed a lot to the global
climate change hence rising level of sea level. Global warming has immensely caused the rising
sea level. World leaders and global communities, therefore, should embrace measures that
should help reduce global warming and encourage more research and innovation on global
climate change (Wackernagel et al., 2013).
Extreme Weather conditions
Extreme weather condition is brought about by the acts of human activities clearing
forested land in search of timber, firewood, charcoal and even for settlement establishment. This

has often resulted in the encroachment of the earth surface leading to desertification. For a
country to realize its sustainable development goal, it is important to encourage and support the
protection of indigenous trees and planting more trees for better forest cover. Proper policies
guiding forest-certification needs to be globally complied with (Wackernagel et al., 2013).
Injustices
Improper application and breach of existing local laws and regulations for global communities
and products have contributed immensely to social injustices. To mitigate this, strict adherence
to these existing local laws and regulations needs to be complied with. This will ensure better
standards of consumer product safety. To promote fair justice and transparency, global
communities should ensure proper waste minimization and better maximization of renewable
energy sources.
Human rights
Respect for human rights is important for a sustainable development goal. Good practices of
human rights will ensure a good relationship and corporate responsibility between business
community and partners. It will promote freedom of interaction, collective-bargaining rights,
better employment terms and free movement of people (Wackernagel et al., 2013).
Part 2: Conflict of Interest
Environmental effects on Cultivable Field
Sustainable food security is key globally. The demand for food has made it possible for
the human population to clear land and cultivate it for food security. This has therefore resulted
in less forest cover leading to soil erosion. As a result, the land remains bare leading to

desertification. This has therefore led to food insecurity in end leaving a country's population
with hunger triggering world concern (Ziadat & Taimeh, 2013).
Conclusion
It can be deduced that human activities have led to global climate change and therefore more
research and innovation needs to be carried out to help create more alternative sources of energy.
Global policies guiding climate change needs to be adopted by counties to mitigate the effects of
global warming and encourage a green economy. This, in the end, will ensure a sustainable
development in the field of food security and environmental conservation.

References
Fang, K., Heijungs, R., & de Snoo, G. R. (2014). A theoretical exploration of the combination of
the ecological, energy, carbon, and water footprints: Overview of a footprint family.
Ecological Indicators, 36, 508-518.
Al-Mulali, U., Weng-Wai, C., Sheau-Ting, L., & Mohammed, A. H. (2015). Investigating the
environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis by utilizing the ecological footprint as an
indicator of environmental degradation. Ecological Indicators, 48, 315-323.
Galli, A., Wackernagel, M., Iha, K., & Lazarus, E. (2014). Ecological footprint: Implications for
biodiversity. Biological Conservation, 173, 121-132.
Weinzettel, J., Steen-Olsen, K., Hertwich, E. G., Borucke, M., & Galli, A. (2014). The ecological
footprint of nations: comparison of process analysis, and standard and hybrid
multiregional input-output analysis. Ecological Economics, 101, 115-126.
Wackernagel, M., Lazarus, E., Lin, D., Iha, K., & Kitzes, J. A. (2013). Ecological Footprint.
Ziadat, F. M., & Taimeh, A. Y. (2013). Effect of rainfall intensity, slope, land use and antecedent
soil moisture on soil erosion in an arid environment. Land Degradation &
Development, 24(6), 582-590.