 A city's footprint is the amount of land required to provide its raw materials and deal with its wastes. London's footprint is 19,700,000 ha (125 times its surface area). This is only marginally less than the size of UK as a whole (area: 24,400,000 ha). Makes you think, doesn't it?
- OneWorld
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Bangkok is sinking at the rate of one centimetre a year due to excessive private tapping of ground water. This ground water tapping is not only lowering the water table, but also contributing to sea-water seepage.
- Source unknown
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By 2025, 'fully 88 percent of the world's
total population growth will be located in
rapidly expanding urban areas and 90
percent of that urban growth will be
absorbed by the developing world.'
- World Bank, Livable Cities for the 21st Century
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Taking into
account land for living, food production, energy production, waste
containment etc. Mathas Wackernagel and William Rees estimate that in Canada it takes 4.3 ha/person,
in the US it is 5.1, India 0.4, and the world 1.8. The authors also
estimate the fair share of the Earth's ecologically productive land per capita to
be a circle with a diameter of 138 meters.
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