Footprints
👣 Footprints
Big idea: A **footprint** shows how much pressure human activities put on Earth’s systems.
Footprints help us understand whether the way we live can be supported by Earth in the long term.
🌍 Ecological footprint
The **ecological footprint** measures how much land and sea area is needed to provide the resources a population uses and to absorb the waste it produces.
🌱 Biocapacity
**Biocapacity** is Earth’s ability to regenerate resources and absorb waste.
Using resources faster than nature can replace them leads to **unsustainability**.
🪐 Earth Overshoot Day
**Earth Overshoot Day** is the date when humanity has used all the resources Earth can regenerate in one year.
🔥 Carbon footprint
A **carbon footprint** measures the amount of greenhouse gases released by human activities.
💧 Water footprint
The **water footprint** measures the total amount of water used to produce the goods and services we consume.
Products can use large amounts of water even if you don’t see it directly.
🧪 Citizen science
**Citizen science** involves non-scientists helping researchers collect environmental data.