Page 232 - Environment: The Science Behind the Stories

Personal impact Total impact
Population Affluence (per capita footprint, (national footprint,
Nation (millions of people) (per capita income) 1 in ha/person) in millions of ha)
Belgium 11.1 $34,760 8.0 89
Brazil 194.3 $10,070 2.9
China 1350.4 $6,020 2.2
Ethiopia 87.0 $870 1.1
India 1259.7 $2,960 0.9
Japan 127.6 $35,220 4.7
Mexico 116.1 $14,270 3.0
Russia 143.2 $15,630 4.4
United States 313.9 $46,970 8.0 2511
1 Measured in GNI PPP (gross national income in purchasing power parity), a measure that standardizes income among nations by
converting it to “international” dollars, which indicate the amount of goods and services one could buy in the United States with a given
amount of money.
Data: Population and affluence data are from Population Reference Bureau, 2012. World population data sheet 2012. Footprint data are
for 2007, from WWF International, Zoological Society of London, and Global Footprint Network. Living planet report 2010.

1. Calculate the total impact (national ecological footprint) 4. Draw a graph illustrating total impact (on the y axis) in
for each country. relation to affluence (on the x axis). What do the results
2. Draw a graph illustrating per capita impact (on the y axis) suggest to you?
vs. affluence (on the x axis). What do the results show? 5. You have just used three of the four variables in the IPAT
Explain why the data look the way they do. equation. Now give one example of how the T (technol-
3. Draw a graph illustrating total impact (on the y axis) in ogy) variable could potentially increase the total impact
relation to population (on the x axis). What do the results of the United States, and one example of how it could
suggest to you? potentially decrease the U.S. impact.

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