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The Time To Act Is Now!
In 2007, the global footprint exceeded the Earth's biocapacity - the area actually available to produce renewable resources and absorb CO2 - by 50 per cent. Overall, humanity's Ecological Footprint has doubled since 1966. This growth in ecological overshoot is largely attributable to the ecological footprint, which has increased 11-fold since 1961 and by just over one-third since 1998.
However, not everybody has an equal footprint and there are enormous differences between countries, particularly those at different economic levels and levels of development. Therefore, it is interesting to see how the Ecological Footprint has changed over time in different political regions, both in magnitude and relative contribution of each footprint component.
The Water Footprint of Production provides a second measure of human demand on renewable resources, and shows that 71 countries are currently experiencing some stress on blue water sources - that is, sources of water people use and don't return - with nearly two-thirds of these experiencing moderate to severe stress. This has profound implications for ecosystem health, food production and human well-being, and is likely to be exacerbated by climate change.
The ecological footprint and the environmental factors affecting each country are outlined below:
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