Erik Assadourian is a researcher with the Washington, D.C.-based Worldwatch Institute who studies global consumption patterns.
He says that the concept of an ecological footprint reinforces the message being delivered by rigorous scientific analyses on the effects of overconsumption.
"We are living unsustainably as a species, and that's going to trigger massive problems," he said.
According to Wackernagel, if global consumption patterns grow at even the moderate rates calculated by the UN, humans will use double the Earth's regenerative capacity by 2050.
At that point, the accumulated ecological debt will amount to resources that would take the Earth about 40 years to renew if humans completely stopped using natural resources.
"We believe that's at the upper limit of what's ecologically possible," Wackernagel said.
To help prevent humans from exhausting the planet's resources, Wackernagel and colleagues aim to have ten countries using the footprint tool to manage their ecological wealth as they do their finances by 2015.
"It's in any government's interest to know how much biological capacity they have available and how much they use," Wackernagel said. "Otherwise they are blind to significant risks."
The network lists 22 countries as potential early adopters of the tool, including several European Union nations, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, and Russia.
But absent from this list is the United States, one of the largest consumers of natural resources in the world.
According to Ecological Footprint calculations, the average U.S. citizen requires 24 acres (10 hectares) to produce enough food, shelter, energy, and other resources to sustain his or her lifestyle.
Worldwide there are only 4.5 acres (1.8 hectares) of biologically productive land available for each person.
Put another way, if everyone on Earth lived like U.S. citizens, the planet would need to be at least five times bigger, Wackernagel says.
Smaller Footprint
Assadourian, of the Worldwatch Institute, says that a complete transformation in how we live is required to reach a sustainable balance of resource use.
One way to get there is to consume in a nondestructible fashion—using recyclable products, biodegradable packaging, and renewable sources of energy, for example.
(Related news: "Africa Farms Get Massive Pledge to Spur 'Green Revolution'" [September 15, 2006].)
Humans must also come to understand and appreciate their dependence on nature and learn to share nature's resources equitably, Assadourian says.
"We are at a moment in history when we make decisions [and] these decisions will affect thousands of years of human civilization," he said.
Wackernagel said that the first step toward leaving a smaller footprint is to ask: "How can I have a better quality of life?"
The answer, he says, almost invariably leads toward a lifestyle that is less resource-intensive, from living in cities with short commutes to using clean energy sources like wind and solar power.
"We need to focus on the incentive for technologies that allow us to live in a small footprint with a great quality of life," he said.
"Technology can help us use resources more rapidly or focus us more efficiently, and it's up to us which technology to use."
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