Global Footprint

When you look at the biological footprint from people around the world there are drastic differences from continent to continent. The earth has the capacity to provide 4.5 acres per person at its current population level. The average individual in the United States of America uses 24 acres. When you look at the available capacity and the average use in the United States, you would need 5.33 earths to support the earth's population if everyone lived like the population of the United States. To sustain the earth's population for the years to come we (the world's population) must change our current habit and lifestyles.

There are many factors that drive up the need for more acreage per person such as transportation methods/distances, amounts of food consumed (over indulgence), and the amount of people living in each household. The United States uses about as much land per person as other any country in the world. The United States' major cities have well developed public transportation system that one would figure that this would drive the land use per person down but as much as the public transportation drives the average down, the fact that nearly every adult has a car, SUV, or truck that they own. This fact drives the average up as much or more than the public transportation drives it down. The United States also consumes more food per person than any other country in the world. This also drives the land needed up a great deal. The last reason that the United States has such a large footprint per person is the fact that some many people/families live in single family homes. While European and Asian countries have the opposite in which there are more apartments, duplexes, and high rises. American seem to have more of an "attraction" to having large yards compared to living close to there workplace. This fact is also reason transportation is so under utilized (as stated above).

The United States needs to do many things to drive this high level of land needed person down such as encouraging the use of public transportation and encouraging smaller food consumption per meal (smaller portions). If the cities/governments (local and national) would do a better job of convincing people that they should you public transportation more often it would drive the land use per person down (less pollution). A good way of doing this would be to give tax breaks for house holds that have less than 2 cars for families and less than 1 car for single or childless households. The government should also do a better job promoting healthy living (smaller