Some questions about ecological footprints?

Question

i'm having trouble understanding ecological footprints could you please explain this to me? thanks

why are the total footprints for Canada and the United Kingdom very small compared with that for the United States while their per capita footprints are only a little smaller?

why is the total footprint for India very large compared with that for the United Arab Emirates while its per capita footprint is much smaller?

Answer 1

footprints are based on consumption of energy and production of waste.

countries like canada and great britain do not produce as much overall energy and waste because the have fewer factories, cars. electrical appliances, etc., than the u.s.  the per capita is only a little smaller, however, because individual consumers in these countries consume only slightly less than u.s. consumers and produce slightly less waste.

india has a significantly higher population than the u.a.r.  in the next 15 or so years india will rival china as the most populous country in the world.  as a result the is a huge total amount of energy consumption and waste produced in india compared to the u.a.r.  the standard of living, however, per capita in the u.a.r. is much higher than that in india where there are lots of poor people.  since more affluent people have the money to buy cars, appliances, etc.  the energy usage per capita in the u.a.r. is a lot higher than it is in india.

this was a really good question and points out that a simplistic view of energy use, pollution sources and methods of elimination and the like are not very effective in addressing the problems we face today.

Answer 2

2 words, population density. both the Us andIndia have large populations and very little land left in a natural state, whle those othe countries havelarge tracts of land with no population whatever.

Answer 3

This has to do with populations of the countries in question.

Canada - 33 million

UK - 60.6 million

US - 300 million

India - 1.1 billion

United Arab Emirates - 2.6 million

More people ---> larger footprint