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2.	Ecological Footprints
	Here's a thought that's making waves: 'The ecological locations of human settlements no longer coincide with their geographic locations.' So argue Bill Rees and Mathis Wackernagel in their best-selling book Our Ecological Footprint. By way of explanation, the authors add, 'Modern cities and industrial regions are dependent for survival and growth on a vast and increasingly global hinterland of ecologically productive landscapes.' The resulting 'ecological footprints' – or, in more scientific terms, 'appropriated carrying capacities' – can be disturbingly large. In fact, the authors calculate that two extra planets would be required to produce the resources, absorb the wastes, and otherwise maintain life-support systems for all the planet's 5.8 billion people if everyone lived at North American material standards. Today, the average North American 'footprint' measures over 4 hectares, or about three city blocks. Even more disturbing, the footprints of rich countries have more than tripled in size since 1900, while in the same period per capita 'Earth-shares' – the world's ecological resources divided by its population – have shrunk by a similar magnitude. But it's not all doom and gloom. Ecological footprint analysis emerged out of planning studies as a tool for making better development decisions, not for predicting the future. The footprints are best viewed as 'ecological snapshots' of resource use in time. While clearly useful, they measure only natural resource use rather than wider social and economic uses, such as human resource expenditures. The measures are also, by their very nature, approximations at best and almost impossible to pinpoint with scientific certainty. Be this as it may, in his classes, Professor Rees asks his students to plan cities as if they were separated from the outside world by a glass dome cutting off all reliance on external natural resources. Viewing things in this way forces users to consider not only all the ways human settlements depend on nature, but eventually also how to reduce their negative impact on ecological systems. [tool for measuring resource use for urban planning]
	Ecological Footprint Analysis Makes Footsteps into the Manufacturing Trade Want to know how large a pool of resources a product needs to be manufactured, or how much waste the product generates? A new computer program called LCnetBase sizes up the ecological footprints of products in 520 categories. For more info, contact Gregory Norris Look for a range of new computer programs designed to give builders and buyers the edge on tracking the ecological footprints of products in the months to come.
	ecological footprint n. the total ecosystem area that is essential to the maintenance of a given human settlement ecological space n. the pool of ecological resources upon which human beings depend earth-shares n. ecological space expressed in per capita terms
	Center for Sustainability Studies. Ecological Footprints of Nations: How Much Nature Do They Use? How Much Nature Do They Have? Rio+5 Forum Study. Xalapa, Mexico: Center for Sustainability Studies, 1997. 20p. Rees, William E. 'Ecological Footprints and the Imperative of Rural Sustainability in Rural Sustainable Development in America, edited by Yvonne Audirac. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1997. 448p.
Virtual Ideas	The Ecological Footprint & Whole systems Simulation for Urban Management – Global Vision Sustainable City Reducing London's Ecological Footprint