Question

The current global ecological footprint of each person is about 2.7 hectares. The Earth presently has 11.4 billion hectares of productive land and water. If we divide this usable area by the global human population of approximately 6 billion, this means:________.

Answer 1

Answer:

This means that there would be an ecological surplus, the allotted footprint of 1.9 hectares per person has been exceeded.

Explanation:

Ecological footprint measures our use and demand of nature and how much nature we have. It measures how much quantity of nature can be used to support people or an economy and it tracks this demand through an ecological accounting system.

Ecological surplus or deficit measures what is left over or how little a country's biocapacity is available. It is calculated by subtracting the country's ecological footprint per person from the country's biocapacity per person. They are both measured in global hectares (gha)