Question

What is an ecological footprint?

Answer 1

Ecological footprint is used to determine the human demand on the natural capital which is a method that is promoted by the Global Footprint Network.

Complete answer:
The ecological footprint is the quantity of nature that is used to support people or an economy through the ecological accounting system. The ecological accounting system focuses on the biologically productive area which is used by the people for their consumption towards the biologically productive area that is available in a region or the world. The ecological footprint measures the human impact on the environment. It includes biocapacity which is a productive area that is used to regenerate the demands of the people from nature. The ecological footprint and biocapacity can be compared at certain scales which includes the national, regional, individual and global scale. The renewal of humanity's demand that can be done by Earth is compared at the global scale level through footprint assessments. The usage of natural capital by humanity is measured as 1.7 times as fast as the earth can renew it.
Renewable resources are the main focus of ecological footprint accounting and the total amount of renewable resources that are produced by the planet has been dubbed biocapacity according to the model. It is misinterpreted by some researchers that ecological footprint accounting is a social theory or a policy guideline instead it is a metric that adds up human demands that compete for the planet's regenerative capacity.

Note:
The world's largest total ecological footprint is measured in China and the increasing factors include population growth and the per capita Ecological Footprint. Montserrat is measured to be the worst country followed by Futuna Islands and others.