That's how much space we'd need if everyone on Earth consumed at the speed Nova Scotians do, says a study released Tuesday. Ronald Colman, who runs the research firm GPI Atlantic, admits it's a different way of looking at overconsumption. Mr. Wilson was out of the country Tuesday and unavailable for an interview. Researchers at University of British Columbia created the concept in 1996, by dividing the world's population into the total amount of productive land and sea. That equals 1.8 hectares of available space per person.
Big consumers take more than their share of the earth.
That means that much land and sea is needed to produce each citizen's food, consumer goods and energy use, and to dispose of the ensuing waste. One example is that it takes a lot fewer resources to produce fresh vegetables and have them sold locally than to make highly packaged and mass-produced convenience foods. Or that taking mass transit and carpooling are superior to everyone driving their own car. To calculate the per-capita footprint, researchers plug in information such as average food consumption, spending habits and energy consumption. Nova Scotia's average footprint is a more respectable 8.1 hectares, and we win points for having diverted much of our solid waste into composting and recycling programs.