Why study Ecology???(ecology: the study of the relationships between organisms (living things) and their environment)

Because Humans BEINGS are living organisms!

our relationship with our environment, and the influence we have on other organisms directly impacts our life.

The Ecological Footprint

Measures human demand on the Earth's ecosystems.

Compares human demand with planet Earth's ecological capacity to regenerate.

Country Comparison: Birth Rate

Country Comparison: Footprint

Country Comparison: Footprint

Country Comparison: Footprint

Country Comparison: Footprint

So Where Do We Fit?

The biocapactity of the Earth for a population of 6 billion people = 1.4 gha

The current average world footprint is = 1.8 gha

Rank Country Footprint (gha)

4 Miss. Iantorno (5.04)1.4 = 7.1

1 Déjana (6)1.4 = 8.4

3 Madi (5.5)1.4 = 7.7

5 Ula (4.10)1.4 = 5.7

7 Brianne (4.01)1.4 = 5.6

6 Klaudia (4.6)1.4 = 6.44

2 Cam (5.6)1.4 = 7.8

2 Scott (5.6)1.4 = 7.9

Class Average: 7.8 (+6.4!)Ecological Footprints

So Where Do We Fit?

The biocapactity of the Earth for a population of 6 billion people = 1.4 gha

The current average world footprint is = 1.8 gha

Rank Country Footprint (gha)

1 United Arab Emerites

15.99

2 USA 12.22

Our Class 7.8

9 Canada 7.66

16 United Kingdom 6.29

20 Japan 5.94

55 Costa Rica 2.77

77 China 1.84

89 Guatemala = 1.4 =

119 Madagascar 0.93

135 Haiti 0.78

141 Bangladesh 0.6Ecological Footprints

So what is the big deal?

the Earth’s regenerative capacity can no longer keep

up with demand – people are turning resources into waste faster than nature can turn waste back into

resources.

Country Comparison: Biocapacity

Why should we care?

A moderate business-as-usual scenario, based on United Nations projections of slow, steady growth of economies and populations, suggests that by 2050, humanity’s demand on nature will be twice the biosphere’s productive capacity.

At this level of ecological deficit, exhaustion of ecological

assets and large-scale ecosystem collapse become

increasingly likely.Dr. Albert Bartlett – The Exponential Function

Case Study: Tigers

http://www.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/tigers/