Which indicator directly reflects per-person resource demand relative to Earth's capacity?

• A. Ecological footprint per capita
• B. Deforestation rate
• C. CO2 concentration
• D. Water stress

Answer: (A)

Think of Earth's capacity as biocapacity—the amount of resources the planet can regenerate and the waste it can absorb in a year. The per-person ecological footprint is a measure of how much land and sea area is required to supply an individual’s consumption and to assimilate their waste. Expressed on a per-person basis, it directly shows how much demand each person places on Earth's capacity and whether that demand stays within the planet’s sustainable limit. If the footprint per person exceeds the available biocapacity per person, humanity is overshooting what Earth can renew for each individual. The other indicators look at changes in forests, atmospheric CO2, or water scarcity, but they don’t translate consumption into a per-person demand relative to planetary carrying capacity.