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Tool Summary Tool Characteristics Tool Application Source of Tools Opinion of Tools

Opinion of tools

Name of the tool
Ecological Footprint

Positive comments about the tool
• Ecological footprints can be calculated at every scale: from global, national, regional and municipal down to household size.
• Once the calculations have been concluded the result is clear and usually quite shocking, in that most countries or individuals over consume according to the EF.

Negative comments about the tool
• Some argue that the Ecological Footprint is more useful as a PR tool than one which accurately measures environmental degradation.
• According to the WWF report (Assessing the Ecological Footprint: A look at the WWF’s Living Planet Report 2002) “The ecological footprint projection merely documents the demands of human consumption in comparison with the biologically productive capacity of the planet; it does not imply whether such a future is possible”,
• The Danish Environmental Assessment Institute say in response to the above WWF report that there is no ‘right’ ecological footprint. But that their calculations for the same Ecological Footprint were done “..to illustrate the arbitrary nature of the calculations behind the footprint size.”