Environmental space
Encyclopedia
The concept of environmental space is the amount of any particular
resource
that can be consumed by a country without threatening the continued
availability of that resource, assuming that everyone in the world is
entitled to an equal share. The weakness of the concept is that it requires
calculating the maximum sustainable consumption rate of each different
resource globally. This rate could be set by either the maximum sustainable
yield (say for forests or fisheries) or the assimilative capacity of the
environment (e.g. for
or chlorine
), but both quantities are very difficult to determine, so the 'environmental space' has rather large error limits
and is therefore hard to defend in policy discussions. A further difficulty is
that there is a different 'environmental space' for each kind of resource,
and as they each necessarily have different units of measure, they cannot be
added to get an overall environmental space for all the resources consumed by a country. The
idea of environmental space was promoted quite strongly by Friends of the Earth Europe
in the
mid-1990s, but it is rarely used now, because of the aforementioned difficulties, and has essentially been superseded by 'ecological footprint
'. The advantage of the ecological footprint is that every kind of resource use is converted to a land area basis, so that they can be added to produce an overall figure for
a country, allowing comparisons to be made.
resource
Resource
A resource is a source or supply from which benefit is produced, typically of limited availability.Resource may also refer to:* Resource , substances or objects required by a biological organism for normal maintenance, growth, and reproduction...
that can be consumed by a country without threatening the continued
availability of that resource, assuming that everyone in the world is
entitled to an equal share. The weakness of the concept is that it requires
calculating the maximum sustainable consumption rate of each different
resource globally. This rate could be set by either the maximum sustainable
yield (say for forests or fisheries) or the assimilative capacity of the
environment (e.g. for
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
or chlorine
Chlorine
Chlorine is the chemical element with atomic number 17 and symbol Cl. It is the second lightest halogen, found in the periodic table in group 17. The element forms diatomic molecules under standard conditions, called dichlorine...
), but both quantities are very difficult to determine, so the 'environmental space' has rather large error limits
Approximation error
The approximation error in some data is the discrepancy between an exact value and some approximation to it. An approximation error can occur because#the measurement of the data is not precise due to the instruments...
and is therefore hard to defend in policy discussions. A further difficulty is
that there is a different 'environmental space' for each kind of resource,
and as they each necessarily have different units of measure, they cannot be
added to get an overall environmental space for all the resources consumed by a country. The
idea of environmental space was promoted quite strongly by Friends of the Earth Europe
Friends of the Earth Europe
Friends of the Earth Europe is the European branch of the world's largest grassroots environmental network, Friends of the Earth International . It includes 30 national organisations and thousands of local groups....
in the
mid-1990s, but it is rarely used now, because of the aforementioned difficulties, and has essentially been superseded by 'ecological footprint
Ecological footprint
The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet's ecological capacity to regenerate. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to...
'. The advantage of the ecological footprint is that every kind of resource use is converted to a land area basis, so that they can be added to produce an overall figure for
a country, allowing comparisons to be made.