Blog
Mathis Wackernagel, founder and president of Global Footprint Network Why did you write “Ecological Footprint: Managing Our Biocapacity Budget” now? Bill Rees and I wrote our first Ecological Footprint book in 1995 at a time when our resource-use estimates were... Read More
The business case for one-planet prosperity
UPDATE: Read the op-ed by Mathis Wackernagel, founder and president of Global Footprint Network, and Jean-Pascal Tricoire, CEO and chairman of Schneider Electric, in the magazine Fortune. Ahead of Earth Overshoot Day this July 29, Schneider Electric, the leader in... Read More
Earth Overshoot Day is just one day in the year. Biocapacity feeds us every day.
Earth Overshoot Day is not just one special day of the year. It is an effort to celebrate biocapacity — our planet’s biological power to regenerate life. This primary productivity of nature is the source for all life, including human... Read More
Mathis vs. Malthus:
Can countries escape the resource trap?
By Mathis Wackernagel, Ph.D. Humanity has achieved so much, including rising longevity around the world, hyper-connectivity, easy and cheap access to information, incredibly safe mobility. Yet there are critical arenas in which progress is so slow that it is starting... Read More
Guimarães, Portuguese municipalities launch their city Footprint Calculators
By Armando Alves Portugal’s Cities Footprint project, now in its second year, launched the first city Footprint Calculator in Guimarães today. Residents can use it to assess their household’s use of natural resources and compare it with the city average.... Read More
Deutscher Erdüberlastungstag am 3. Mai: Keine Trendwende im Verbrauch natürlicher Ressourcen hierzulande in Sicht
Umwelt- und Jugendorganisationen kritisieren immensen Ressourcenverbrauch Deutschlands in Höhe von umgerechnet drei Erden Germanwatch, INKOTA, BUNDJugend, Naturschutzjugend, FairBindung und Global Footprint Network Ab 3. Mai (Freitag) leben wir ökologisch gesehen auf Kredit: Der deutsche Erdüberlastungstag markiert den Zeitpunkt im Jahr,... Read More
May 3 is German Overshoot Day: In Germany no trend reversal in consumption of natural resources in sight
Environmental and youth organizations criticize immense resource consumption of Germany at a value of equivalent three earths Germanwatch, INKOTA, BUNDJugend, Naturschutzjugend, FairBindung and Global Footprint Network From 3 May, Germans will be living on credit, ecologically—Germany’s Overshoot Day marks the... Read More
Humanity’s Ecological Footprint contracted between 2014-2016
The 2019 edition of the National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts tracks the Ecological Footprint and biocapacity of all countries, using U.N. data, from 1961 to 2016. This is two years further than last year’s edition, since U.N. data is becoming... Read More
"Why study for a future, which may not be there?"
By Mathis Wackernagel, Ph.D., Co-founder and president, Global Footprint Network Greta Thunberg stunned the COP Climate Conference in Poland in December 2018 with her clarity and honesty. Just 15 years old, she told the UN—”You say you love your children... Read More