Pushing the planet to its limit

University of British Columbia Prof. Bill Rees, the man who coined the term “ecological footprint,” still tries to keep his own footprint as small as possible, but he says no one can do it alone.

He uses a grim analogy to make his point: North Americans may use a disproportionate amount of the world’s resources, but if we push the planet beyond its sustainable limits, we will all go down together, just the way the first-class cabins on the Titanic went to a watery grave just as quickly as the steerage cabins.


It has been more than a decade since he popularized the term as a way of personalizing the equivalent amount of land in continuous production required to feed individual consumption. Since then, that area has been increasing, and in developed nations it ranges from 4.5 hectares to 10 hectares per person.

Japan and most of the European countries are at the low end of the scale, while the U.S., Canada and Australia are at the top.

Rees, who teaches at UBC’s school of community and regional planning, estimates that North Americans consume 3.5 to four times their reasonable share of global resources, and personal measures like using a blue box aren’t going to change that.

Vancouver Sun