Ecological Footprint Essay

The Ecological footprint is a method to compute the support to human life from nature and calculate the effect of human on natural environment such as use of resources, the consequence of the resource use and balance the demand of resources and supply from the nature (Global Footprint Network, 2012). In the 21st century, there is the increasing trend of population cause the growing demand of resource. Therefore, sustainable resource use is becoming crucial for people who are living currently and next generations. This essay will discuss this issue with one developed country and one developing country: Australia and China as subjects.

As regards to the number of ecological footprint, China and Australia has a big difference; according to the Living Planet Report in 2008, there were 7.8 ha (hectare) in one person globally; there was more than 2.8 times of average global footprint: 2.7ha per person (EPA VICTORIA). Unless, according to the China Ecological Footprint Report 2010, the consumption and waste level of resources need 1.2 planets to support the demand and the carbon emissions and individual wealth are the major factors of China’s ecological footprint growth (WWF, 2010). Therefore, as can be seen that from the statistics the Australian Government put more attention on reducing the ecological footprint than Chinese Government and Australia has less ecological footprint than China.

There is a big difference of population in China is 1.344 billion but Australia has around 23 million people (World Bank 2011, Australian Bureau of Statistics 2013). It can be seen that population could affect the demand of resources, living standard and employment, for example. Due to the mega- population, the Chinese Government has to balance of scarcity and demand of resources; for this issue, the Chinese Government made the one-child policy for restrict population growth to reduce the stress from mega-population (Rosenberg 2012). Although China has large population, China also has the labour crisis: too low fertility rate. With reference to The Economist (2011) the new figures which was made few years ago, it said ‘China is suffering from the low birth rate.’; According to the census report released in 2010 which based on the national wide figures, showed there is a considerable decline in the average annual population growth rate, down to 0.57% from 2000-2010 which was half the rate of 1.07% in the previous decade. It can be predicted that one- child policy could stabilize the population growth in the future (Economist 2011). Unless, Australia also face the ageing population issue, according to the Living Ethics (2010), it predicted that Australia is facing the labour crisis: the proportion of over 65 people will more than 20% in 2050 meanwhile the birth rate has considerably decreased over last 50 years (Brown 2011). Fortunately, most of migrants in Australia are in the working age. There are 70% of migrants are skilled who was intake in 2010(Brown 2011). It seems the labour issue is reducing in Australia (Brown 2011). However, migrants are not sustainably change in Australian labour force because the immigration program is changing due to the condition of the society and migrants could get ageing as well (Brown 2011).

Reference List:

Australian Bureau of Statistics 2013, Population clock, Australian Government, Perth, accessed 26 March 2013, .

BOB, D 2012, 'Help cut back our ecological footprint', Canberra Times, 20 August, Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre, EBSCOhost, viewed 25 March 2013.

Brown, J 2010, 'Australia’s real problem is population ageing', Living Ethics, no. 81, Spring, accessed 26 March 2013, .

China 2011, World Bank, accessed 26 March 2013,

.

China Ecological Footprint Report 2010 15 November 2010 , WWF China, accessed 26 March 2013, .

'China's population: The most surprising demographic crisis' 2011, The Economist, accessed 26 March 2013, .

Global Footprint Network (2012) Footprint Basics - Overview. [online] Available at: http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/footprint_basics_overview/ [Accessed: 18 Mar 2013]

State Government of Victoria 2008, Australia's and Victoria's Ecological Footprint, EPA VICTORIA, accessed 26 March 2013, .