Author(s)

S. H. Shakir Hanna & I. W. Osborne-Lee

Abstract

The ecological footprint is an important measure in calculating the human demands and impacts on our global environment. In this respect the ecological footprint is a function of all the parameters that interact between the power of ecosystem productivity and human interactions and activities on a particular ecosystem or the demand from that ecosystem. The present paper will cover and analyze the ecosystems productivity and the human demand from the ecosystems. It will produce comprehensive analyses in measuring the possibility of capabilities of the ecosystems to provide goods and services to the human beings on our planet Earth. Further, the paper will discuss the models that can be used in measuring the sustainability of ecosystem and what we should be doing to maintain the Earth healthy ecosystems. In this respect, the paper will assess and introduce a comprehensive model that can describe the status of our ecosystems productivities and the impacts of human population on the plant Earth. Furthermore, the paper will provide some answers to the human issues, further warning to the current trend in use and abuse of our natural ecosystems and what will be expecting from these ecosystems to provide the human needs in response to the current use of our global ecosystems. Finally, it will conclude and setup several recommendations to save our Planet Earth from the irreversible impacts of human beings on the ecosystems and our global environment. Keywords: economic analysis, ecological footprint (EF), impacts, global biological capacity (GBC), global biological demand (GBD), global deficit capacity, global ecological capacity (GEC), sustainability index, maintenance index.

Keywords

economic analysis, ecological footprint (EF), impacts, global biological capacity (GBC), global biological demand (GBD), global deficit capacity, global ecological capacity (GEC), sustainability index, maintenance index