Weaknesses Of The Ecological Footprint Environmental Sciences Essay

Weaknesses Of The Ecological Footprint Environmental Sciences Essay flourishing at a yearly rate of 4. Contribution of the industry in the economy has become a global trend. However, as the tourist industry flourishes, those activities have also resulted into environmental impact issues, such as traffic congestion, over- exploitation of natural resources, and issues created by inappropriate tourist behaviors. Apart from the effects on human, natural, and culture heritages, these create a lot of pollution (Wu, 2003). With the constant rise of environmental protection philosophies, green consumption is slowly from being a mere concept into real action. The hotel and restaurant industries, above all, are closely related to environmental protection (Kuo, 2000). It is truly said that the continued growth of development is having an extensive and different ecological impacts. The urban that are being expanded are including the agricultural land and established the ecosystems, reducing the local bio-productivity and biodiversity while there has been an incr ease in the level of demand for resources and other ecological services by the rising populations. Ecological Footprint has been co-originated by Professor William Rees and Dr. Mathis Waskernagel. The Ecological Footprint is embedded in the reality that all renewable resources arrive from the earth. It accounts for the flows of energy and converts these into the matching land/water area necessary for nature to support these flows. The Ecological Footprint is defined as the area of productive land and water ecosystems required to produce the resources that the population consumes and assimilate the wastes that the population produces, wherever on Earth the land and water is located. It compares actual throughput of renewable resources in relation to what is yearly renewed. Ecological Footprint looks at the total quantity of global hectares that are necessary to hold a particular population. The Footprints of individual nations vary considerably.The Ecological Footprint is a resource accounting tool that measures the human demand on the Earth. By calculating a persons Ecological Footprint, it shows whether he is living within the ecological budget or whether he is overwhelming n atures resources faster than the planet can renew them. We can choose to live on a depleted planet or we can choose to live on a rich, biologically diverse, more stable planet proposes Dr. Mathis Wackernagel, co-creator of the Ecological Footprint. Strengths of the Ecological Footprint: It has an immediate intuitive appeal It is being used worldwide in a variety of settings. It addresses national, municipal, regional and individual footprint. It is used as a policy tool It is used as an indicator Weaknesses of the Ecological Footprint: It is not a precise measure of ecological sustainability It underestimates the impact of individual actions on the biosphere It provides limited information about most of the non-renewable resources. It allows only universal types of bioproductive areas to be recognized (forests, cropland) It does not account for all human impacts on the environment. Opportunities of the Ecological Footprint: Efforts are being done so as to standardize the Footprint. It will increase the usefulness of this sustainability indicator. It will be used for different projects. Critically assess Ecological Footprint with other existing environmental tools: The Ecological Footprint is based on the concepts of capacity and the precautionary principle which though out without their critics (Kooten and Bulte, 2000), are commonly accepted in the field of ecological impact assessment (Rees, 1996). Its methodology is grounded in the physical measures of the ecological limits and the environmental impacts of the human activity and it provides a theoretical foundation for the evaluation and comparison. Essential in the metric is an interpretation of the goal of the ecological sustainability that is to live within the bio-productive capacity of the earth. The tool that is being used is clearly focused on the ecological sustainability and with its creator acknowledging there is an additional need for the social assessment frameworks (Wackernagel and Yount, 2000). Thus, the Ecological Footprint is not proposed as a complete measure of sustainability. Rather, it is presented as a tool captures the main global ecological concerns within its metric w hich reflect a crucial precondition for the sustainability- living within the ecological limits of the earth (Wackernagel and Rees, 1996). The inventors of the Ecological Footprint have put more emphasis on various potential uses for the tool. Since this tool has been developed, the use of the tool has spread quickly into a different range of applications. Its use now has been expanded from global and national accounts, such as the WWFs Living Planet Reports (WWF, 2006) to the regional, city and local area scales. With respect to urban planning and development, Wackernagel and Yount (2000, p. 34) define the Ecological Footprint as a powerful tool for comparing the ecological demand of design options such as housing densities, transportation systems or infrastructure development. They say that: urban design has a significant impact on peoples consuming behavior. It influences not only how they shop, but also how they move around, what kind of houses they live in and what kind of urban infrastructure services they acquire. In another study, according to Muniz and Galindo (2005), they use the footprint analysis of travel-to-work behavior in Barcelona so as to conclude that urban form has a clear effect on the travel behavior which is greater that the socio-economic factors for example the average family income, and however that compact city policies that include the public transport and a mix of populations and activities resulting in a lower transport Ecological Footprints. With growing concerns on the environment, there are several international agencies which are using environmental data/information and indicators to evaluate current conditions and trends to provide information on the state of the environment. There are other environmental tools that exist. EIA- Environmental Impact Assessment: It is a process with a set of procedures. It is an assessment which helps decision-makers. It is a project that causes minimal degradation of environmental resources. It is a planning tool that is viewed as an integral component of sound decision-making. It also helps to identify, evaluate and mitigate the impacts caused by developments. Sustainability Assessment Tools for Residential Estates In order to decrease the ecological impact of urban development, it is important to make changes to the urban form and to the urban development practices. This process of change needs tools that can understand the ecological sustainability in the context of urban development that is it must be able to achieve the aims and targets, facilitate change in the practice and measure the progress that is being done gradually. EF- Ecological Footprint: It accounts for the use of the planets renewable resources. Its application includes analysis of policy, benchmarking performance, education and awareness raising and scenario development. As a policy tool, the ecological footprint is still in its infancy. Businesses are vital associates in delivering both the social and environmental scope of sustainable development. As organizations, they both meet the demand for goods and services essential to improve quality of life and, in the process, impact on the environment either directly or indirectly through their use of natural resources and their creation of wastes. One issue for businesses wishing to benefit from better environmental and social performance is the lack of consistent and credible methodologies to compute monitor and communicate evolution. latest years have seen a rise in companies using environmental management systems but few of these take life cycle approach and report for flow of material and energy. An amount of approaches are obtainable to businesses wishing to evaluate the environmental impact of their products or services. The matter of how much utilization is sustainable is also one that require to be addresses. Ecological footprint Analysis exclusively approaches the problem of sustainability by reference to the overall carrying capacity of the world at the same time , it also link to the individual behavior to organizational, regional and global. There are many tools which measure environmental progress and consumption of resources, such as the ISO 14000, the Environmental policies and measures (EPM), the Environmental Protection Act (EPA), the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), I-O, SPI, the LCIA, and the Environmental Management System (EMS). Critically assess EF with other existing environmental tools Ecological footprint is an approximate of the amount of space on the earth that a person uses in order to survive using obtainable technology. This space includes biologically productive land and water area that produces the resources devoted by that person such as food, water, energy, clothing, and building materials. It also comprises the quantity of land and water necessary to incorporate the waste generated by that person. In line with the management consultancy mantra that to manage something effectively you need to be able to measure it, the metrics of sustainability have become progressively important in the policy world, as governments, NGOs and others attempt to identify whether their strategies and policies are indeed beginning to have an impact. This metric turn has encouraged support for existing measurement techniques such as environmental audits, environmental impact assessments, strategic environmental assessments and state of the environment reporting, while unchecking a range of new techniques for measuring environmental impacts. These approaches range from sustainability evaluation to more fundamental ideas such as Ecological Footprints. Both new and older techniques for measuring sustainability push for policy saliency, each with its own intellectual justifications, supporters and critics, and in most cases, people whose income or professional standing in some part derive from their adoption and, equally important, local adaptation. The key players in the new metrics industry include those in consultancies of various kinds, universities, NGOs and government departments. We do not mean to assign base motives to any of those involved, since most are strongly committed to developing approaches that help shift behavior patterns in ways intended to bring about environmental improvements. We do, however, want to argue that there is more at stake here than who measures sustainability best; underlying the competition for how to measure sustainability is an ethical debate about what it is that needs to be measured, why and how. In terms of environmental problems, for instance, there is always basic political and scienti ¬Ã‚ c biases in choosing which problem merits most research money attention in different contexts. For instance there are other measuring tools which are used like: Environmental Policies and Management (EPM) This is used by government or other authorities to implement their environmental policies. That is, it focuses on problems arising from human impact on the environment which retroacts onto human society by having a negative impact on human values such as good health or the clean and green environment. Environmental Impacts Assessment (EIA) An  environmental impact assessment  (EIA) is an assessment of the probable positive or negative impact that a planned project may have on the environment, jointly consisting of the  environmental, social and economic aspects. The reason of the evaluation is to make sure that decision makers consider the resulting environmental impacts when deciding whether to proceed with a project.   EIA is one type of tools, which may assist the sustainable development of a country. According to (Fitzpatrick,2003 and Sinchair,2009), they said that the EIA is focused on the implementation of preventive means and due to the fact that the aim of the EIA is the identification of possible risks and effects as early as possible. The EIA gives an opportunity to take into consideration the potential effects of the designed activity and thus it consider the other alternatives in the project implementation form various perspectives. Hence, this is done by identifying the potential environmental, social and health aspects of the planned activity (Glasson et al., 2005). Advantages of EIA Disadvantages of EIA Simple to use It is difficult to change and it is open to poor judgment by decision-makers It is flexible It is complex and ambiguous Allows for good judgment It is slow and costly It can improve It can lose flexibility Environmental assessment is a systematic procedure that is designed to identify, examine and assess the environmental effects of a particular product or an activity. The aim of this procedure is to spot any foreseeable unpleasant impacts throughout the life cycle of a product. Environmental Assessment allows an effective combination of environmental considerations and public concerns into the decision making. The environmental assessment tools are divided into four sections namely: Life Cycle Assessment Environmental Risk Assessment Life Cycle Cost Eco-efficiency Environmental Protection Act (EPA) This act is to provide for the safety and supervision of the environmental assets of Mauritius so that their ability to sustain the society and its development remains unchanged and to raise agreement between quality of life, environmental defense and sustainable development for the present and future generations; more exclusively to offer for the legal framework and the tool to defend the natural environment, to plan for environmental management and to direct the inter-relations of environmental issues, and to guarantee the proper implementation of governmental policies and application provisions necessary for the security of human health and the environment of Mauritius. The model consist of six parts: Food, energy, textile, paper, waste, and construction land. Various resource or energy consumption items are converted into biologically productive land areas. There are six basic types of biologically productive land: Cropland, grazing land, forestland, construction land, fossil energy resource land, and water (marine) area. The ratio between the consumption of a certain type of goods and the yield per unit of such goods on a certain type of land is the biologically productive land area required for that type of land. Multiply the figure by the corresponding equivalent factor, and we have the required area for this type of land under local or international standards. Wherein: EFi: represents the ecological footprint of a certain category, normally expressed in units of global hectares (ghm2). Qi: represents the total consumption of a certain type of goods, normally expressed in units of kilograms (kg) or tons (t). Pi: represents the world average yield of this type of goods, normally expressed in units of kilograms/hectare (kg/hm2). Ei: is the equivalent factor for the type of the land which produces this type of goods. And, the value of the coefficient varies with land type.

Negative Effects of Tv on Family Life

Negative Effects of TV The television has many effects on family life and the individual, causing family bonds to unravel and the individual to become naive of their surroundings. The TV keeps one hooked for hours on end, causing family relationships to diminish and personal relationships to weaken. Not only does the TV seem to be a good alternative to conversations and interactions amongst one another, but it also helps to create a gap between the fictional world of TV and reality.Since the invention of the home television, it has become a crucial part in everyday household life. Children spend less time with family, because it is simply easier to sit down and be entertained by the TV. †The time spent next to it [the TV] exceeds the amount of time spent together with any other family member. † (Wattermann) Watching TV has a major effect on the way a child communicates with other family members and friends, distancing them from real-world situations and problems. Parents spend long hours working and want an effective suppressant for their children. Contemporary parents work a lot, but when they come back home they are not eager to spend time with their child†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Wattermann) Even adults fall into the attraction of taking themselves out of their childs’ life, in order to relax or gain the free time they long desire. The effect the TV has on the family has been negative in comparison to the original intention of bringing the TV into the home, back in the 1940s. The depiction of the family watching TV together has changed, and now with multiply TVs present in a home, the separation and disfunction of the family has increased.TV also has a negative effect on the individual, because it takes away from potential relationships and also promotes bad behavior and aggressions as seen on violent television shows. What is being watched on television has the potential to influencing negative behavior, within the child or even adult. In an articl e from the AAP or the American Association of Pediatrics, it was noted that, â€Å"Extensive research evidence indicates that media violence can contribute to aggressive behavior, desensitization to violence, nightmares, and fear of being harmed. † (Pediatrics Vol. 108 No. ) The violence seen on TV, can lead to violent acts later on. Individuals are affected by what they see on TV and can be influenced by the suggestive nature that is described in almost every TV program. â€Å"Even in G-rated, animated movies and DVDs, violence is common† (Boyse, RN). The TV violence has an effect on people and children of all ages, and even though some programs are educational and beneficial for the development and growth of the child, there are so many other programs going on at the same time that contradict the idea of â€Å"good TV†. Television watching also has a major impact on the self-image one has of themself.The TV paints a false image of what the normal and accepted person should look like. The person watching, therefore gets sucked into the mindset that they have to be like the well-toned models seen on tv, this creates many different problems. Insecurities within the individual flourish and they are constantly bombarded with images of how they should be, in order to fit into today’s society. While watching constant images of healthy women and men makes some people immediately jump off the couch and start their â€Å"cardio routine† some sit back and envy what they simply will never have.Ironically, this leads to eating disorders and obesity. â€Å"People, who spend hours and hours in front of the TV sets, are under very high risk of becoming overweight and obese. † (API Heathline) Either way, false advertisement of the way someone should be perceived has a negative effect on the viewer. In general, the content on TV impacts who were are and who we want to become in order to fit into society. Another factor involved in tel evision watching, is the amount and the persistence of commercials.Commercials make up a majority of television air time, trying to influence people to spend time and resources on products and new inventions that will make you better fit into society. For example, food commercials are constantly influencing people to make new recipes or to go to the newest most delicious restaurant in town. Other commercials such as the shopping channel become appealing to the older audience who are alone and constantly craving new things. This leads to hording and other disorders, including the addiction of television watching in itself.Commercials and news articles also persuade people in terms of politics, economic issues, and social influences therefore inducting the one-way nature of the viewers. If people constantly go to the TV for current updates on news and other current events then it deters the need to communicate with one another and create the social relationships needed to have a cohes ive balance in life. Another problem that arises with TV is the effect it has on one psychologically. Kids spend many hours in front of the TV, especially over long periods of isolation. Some adults can argue that the constant atching of television is the beginning of a new age of addiction. â€Å"Studies about negative effects of television addiction show the TV addicts’ people through its tranquilizing numbing affect, causing them to relax, become drowsy, and then desire to watch more TV. † (Parenting-Healthy-Children) Watching TV seems to have the same effects that habit- forming narcotics have on the individual. When watching hours upon hours of TV, one is quickly relaxed and put into a state of obliviousness to the outside world, therefore having similar effects of mind altering drugs.TV watching has many effects on the viewer and can lead to many social and personal problems. Family relationships, individual self- consciousness, and violent/ inappropriate subject matter all lead to the conclusion that too much television can be harmful to our society. TV is readily available to every one of all ages, and the majority of the material is geared toward a more mature audience. Over time, TV has changed dramatically from mostly family-oriented TV programs to programs geared to different age groups, in order to attract different audiences. Children and TV: The Negative Effects of Television. †Ã‚  Children and TV: The Negative Effects of Television. N. p. , n. d. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. â€Å"Media Violence. †Ã‚  Media Violence. N. p. , n. d. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. â€Å"Bad Effects Of Watching Too Much TV | Academic Programs International a Health Line. â€Å"Academic Programs International Health Line Bad Effects Of Watching Too Much TV Comments. N. p. , n. d. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. â€Å"The Negative Effects of Television Addiction and Computer Addiction. †Ã‚  The Negative Effects of TelevisionAddiction and Computer Addiction. N. p. , n. d. Web. 13 Feb. 2013.

Compare and contrast Charlie Gordon

Flowers of Algerian People are never happy with themselves we all have our imperfections and that's Just part of life. In the story â€Å"Flowers for Algerian,† Charlie Gordon has a mental disability and he wanted to be smart and for that he had to get an operation. Although he shouldn't have offered himself because before the operation he was happy, he worked at a factory, he liked his Job, he had true friends and fake friends Just like a normal person does. Having the operation Charlie cut his life short.Charlie should not have had the operation. Charlie had gone through a lot and he wanted to change. Charlie wanted to be smart, before the operation Charlie was gullible, his â€Å"friends† would make fun of him but he never realized it and he was happy. Charlie was smart in his own way but he never realized it because he was focused on being â€Å"smart. † After the operation Charlie was a serious person he understood everything his friends said. Charlie's beha vior changed he was more aggressive and he got fired.In conclusion, Charlie should not have had the operation he became aggressive, he scared people and got fired. Charlie was not as happy anymore, he was a serious person and he understood everything people said. Charlie wanted to be smart and never realized he was smart in his own way. Charlie should have never had the operation because he cut his life short, he was not happy, he was more aggressive but was giving up his life, and being happy worth It to be Intelligent.

Grapes of Wrath Quotes

The Grapes of Wrath is a novel by Nobel-Prize winning author John Steinbeck that is considered a classic piece of American literature. Published in 1939, the plot centers around the Joads, a family of sharecroppers, who journey to California seeking a new life as they attempt to escape the devasting effects of the Oklahoma Dust Bowl and The Great Depression. Selected Quotes from The Grapes of Wrath Houses were shut tight, and cloth wedged around doors and windows, but the dust came in so thinly that it could not be seen in the air, and it settled like pollen on the chairs and tables, on the dishes. Before I knowed it, I was sayin out loud, The hell with it! There aint no sin and there aint no virtue. Theres just stuff people do. Its all part of the same thing.... I says, Whats this call, this sperit? An I says, Its love. I love people so much Im fit to bust, sometimes.... I figgered, Why do we got to hang it on God or Jesus? Maybe, I figgered, maybe its all men an all women we love; maybe thats the Holy Sperit-the human sperit-the whole shebang. Maybe all men got one big soul everbodys a part of. Now I sat there thinkin it, an all of a sudden—I knew it. I knew it so deep down that it was true, and I still know it. They breathe profits; they eat the interest on money. If they dont get it, they die the way you die without air, without side-meat. The bank is something more than men, I tell you. Its the monster. Men made it, but they cant control it. I got thinkin how we was holy when we was one thing, an mankin was holy when it was one thing. An it ony got unholy when one misable little fella got the bit in his teeth an run off his own way, kickin an draggin an fightin. Fella like that bust the holi-ness. But when theyre all workin together, not one fella for another fella, but one fella kind of harnessed to the whole shebang—thats right, thats holy. It aint that big. The whole United States aint that big. It aint that big. It aint big enough. There aint room enough for you an me, for your kind an my kind, for rich and poor together all in one country, for thieves and honest men. For hunger and fat. Man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments. Fear the time when the strikes stop while the great owners live—for every little beaten strike is proof that the step is being taken... fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Manself, and this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe. Is a tractor bad? Is the power that turns the long furrows wrong? If this tractor were ours, it would be good—not mine, but ours. We could love that tractor then as we have loved this land when it was ours. But this tractor does two things—it turns the land and turns us off the land. There is little difference between this tractor and a tank. The people were driven, intimidated, hurt by both. We must think about this. Okie use ta mean you was from Oklahoma. Now it means youre a dirty son-of-a-bitch. Okie means youre scum. Dont mean nothing itself, its the way they say it. I know this... a man got to do what he got to do. Theys a time of change, an when that comes, dyin is a piece of all dyin, and bearin is a piece of all bearin, an bearin an dyin is two pieces of the same thing. An then things aint so lonely anymore. An then a hurt dont hurt so bad. And the great owners, who must lose their land in an upheaval, the great owners with access to history, with eyes to read history and to know the great fact: when property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away. And that companion fact: when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need. And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed. How can you frighten a man whose hunger is not only in his own cramped stomach but in the wretched bellies of his children? You cant scare him—he has known a fear beyond every other. Were Joads. We dont look up to nobody. Grampas grampa, he fit in the Revolution. We was farm people till the debt. And then—them people. They done somepin to us. Ever time they come seemed like they was a-whippin me—all of us. An in Needles, that police. He done somepin to me, made me feel mean. Made me feel ashamed. An now I aint ashamed. These folks is our folks—is our folks. An that manager, he come an set an drank coffee, an he says, Mrs. Joad this, an Mrs. Joad that—an How you getting on, Mrs. Joad? She stopped and sighed. Why, I feel like people again. The migrant people, scuttling for work, scrabbling to live, looked always for pleasure, dug for pleasure, manufactured pleasure, and they were hungry for amusement. In the souls of the people, the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage. Says one time he went out in the wilderness to find his own soul, an he foun he didnt have no soul that was hisn. Says he foun he jus got a little piece of a great big soul. Says a wilderness aint no good, cause his little piece of a soul wasnt no good less it was with the rest, an was whole. Whenever theys a fight so hungry people can eat, Ill be there. Whenever theys a cop beatin up a guy, Ill be there... Ill be in the way guys yell when theyre mad an Ill be in the way kids laugh when theyre hungry an they know suppers ready. An when our folks eat the stuff they raise an live in the houses they build—why, Ill be there.