On the Policy Relevance of Ecological Footprints

摘要

Searchingfor indicators of sustainability is a recurrent theme in environmental science and policy. The "ecological footprint" (EF) has emerged as a popular concept and method for measuring sustainability (1). For example, 1SI web of knowledge delivers over 500 journal articles for "ecological footprint"-with an increasing trend from 2001 to 2008-while Google delivers more than 2 million and Google Scholar more than 14,000 hits for "ecological footprint". This is partly due to the online "Footprint Network" putting much effort in diffusing the EF method.