"Canadians, and Nova Scotians in particular, have very big feet. Ecological feet, that is. Our "ecological footprint" is the amount of productive land area, including crop land, pasture, forests and fisheries, required to supply current human consumption and absorb wastes."
Media Clipping – October 15, 2006, The Chronicle-Herald
"NO DOUBT it's just a coincidence that Overshoot Day 2006 happened to fall on Thanksgiving Day. Overshoot Day marks the date at which human beings have consumed the entire production of the Earth for the whole year. It's the date on which we move into ecological overdraft."
“ GPI Atlantic is also conducting what is called an "ecological footprint" for Prince Edward Island. The "footprint" will measure the impact of current human activities on the environment by taking into account the resources used in daily living. Preliminary results would indicate that Islanders - like people in other industrialized societies - are consuming resources at a faster rate than they can be replenished by the planet. The report will be released later this year. ”
“ The Nova Scotia Ecological Footprint reveals that the area required to sustain Nova Scotia resource use and waste production is 8.1 hectares per person. This corresponds to the size of 20 football fields put together or three city blocks per person. In other words, Nova Scotians require 7.6 million hectares of land to support their consumption levels - almost one and a half times larger than the geographical area of the entire province. Nova Scotia's ecological footprint of 8.1 hectares/capita is 5% larger than the Canadian ecological footprint of 7.7 hectares/capita. ”
June 3, 2001, The Halifax Herald ~ Silver Donald Cameron
Here's how you can reduce your impact on Mother Earth “ Because nature's resources are limited, over-consumption in one time or place produces poverty elsewhere. Ultimately the First World can remain rich only by compelling the Third World to remain poor, and the present generation's prosperity must inevitably result in the impoverishment - or worse - of our descendants. ”
May 27, 2001, The Halifax Herald ~ Silver Donald Cameron
Nova Scotians consume more than their share of the Earth's resources “ The Nova Scotia Ecological Footprint is a startling document. Unlike most environmental assessments, it looks not at the impact of industry, but at consumption - the effect of eating fish or using lumber rather than the impact of the fishing or forest industries. It starts from the fact that each of us withdraws a certain amount every year from the great Bank of Nature. Each of us requires a certain amount of land to produce our food, a certain amount of energy to run our households, a certain amount of forest to absorb the greenhouse gases we produce. The total demand I make on nature is my "ecological footprint" - the resources which I personally take from the planet. How much productive land and sea does my present lifestyle require? ”
March 31, 2001, The Halifax Herald ~ Ronald Colman
“ In The Chronicle-Herald ("Betting on Human Ingenuity," 28 March), Brian Lee Crowley states that "it is quite incorrect to think of natural resources as exhaustible." Those who think so, he says, are "pessimists" and "false prophets of doom." If "natural resources were actually getting scarcer," he argues, "then the price would go up" and "human ingenuity comes up with cheaper alternatives, or invests time and intelligence in increasing the supply." ”
March 28, 2001, The Halifax Herald ~ Brian Lee Crowley
“ On the front page of this newspaper recently, it was claimed that the resources of four more planets would be needed to maintain us at our current levels of consumption. We were exhorted to give up cars for bicycles. ¶ Time and again, people have looked at growing human prosperity, improving health and population increase and told us that we were living in a fool's paradise, that it obviously couldn't continue, that our prosperity was at the cost of others such as the poor or future generations, and that we would pay the price for our irresponsible wickedness. ”
March 17, 2001, The Halifax Herald ~ Ralph Surette
“ HERE'S THE big picture, in stark colours: as panic stalks the financial markets, taxes and interest rates are being slashed in an urgent attempt to stimulate consumer spending and keep the economy growing at all costs. ¶ Meanwhile, a Nova Scotian study outlines how that same consumption and growth makes us ecology pigs which the natural world can't sustain forever, and maybe not even into the next generation. ¶ There's a showdown somewhere down the road, obviously. ”
March 14, 2001, The Halifax Herald
Nova Scotians Overconsuming: residents taking more than our share - study
“ The formula to measure the ecological footprint was calculated by University of British Columbia scientists. A global footprint found there are 1.8 hectares available for each of the Earth's six billion people. ¶ Colman figures Nova Scotians can cut their collective ecological footprint by one million hectares, to seven hectares per person, "without compromising their quality of life." ”
Authors: Anne Monette, MES; Ronald Colman, Ph.D; and Jeff Wilson, BES
The environmental impact of consumption patterns, including transportation, residential energy use, and food consumption in Nova Scotia. Includes trends over time, projections to 2020 and assessments of alternative footprint reduction options.
