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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?

2007-04-13 11:19:52 · 4 answers · asked by Randy 1 in Environment

4 answers

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.

2007-04-13 11:41:26 · answer #1 · answered by Basta Ya 3 · 0 0

Your *individual* contributions do no longer rely that lots. yet, mutually, human beings could have *extensive* outcomes on the surroundings, if for no different reason than by way of fact there are something like 7-8 billion human beings. in my view, I take a little time to maintain my ecological footprint small. I take incredibly short showers, turn off the water while i do no longer might desire to apply it, seize water while i'm working it to get warm water and use that water on plant life, recycle, purchase LED mild bulbs, etc. it incredibly is kinder on the surroundings, *and* saves me money. this is referred to as enlightened self interest. you should attempt it a while.

2016-12-26 06:45:41 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0 0

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

2007-04-13 11:28:21 · answer #3 · answered by ecolink 7 · 0 0

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.

2007-04-13 11:28:42 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

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