Ecological  Footprint
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One Planet Economy
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One planet economy

This expression is so informative that we keep and use the English version of it, although we tried to translate it into Hungarian, as it can be seen on our Hungarian version main page.

A concept which fully fits to the ecological footprint stands behind the expression, that was not initiated by the environment protecting organizations but by a politician having great influence. "One planet economy" – announced his economy improving concept Tony Blair, former PM in March 2005. Other words: successful economy, which develops within the limits of the Earth's resources. The base of the concept was probably the desktop study prepared by DEFRA and WWF, which suggested that we would need three planets if we all had a life style as the people (using the natural resources, producing the waste materials, id est the ecological footprint per capita was so high) of the United Kingdom. The "One Planet Economy" is a radical approach on this political level, and this is the first time when it is acknowledged that the economical growth in itself and its isolated interpretation is not the index of success, it is not the final goal to achieve, but it shall be interpreted through its global effects on environment and people!

The "One planet economy" became so emphatic as from the early 1990s with the ecological footprint calculations we can get the information that people are using more natural resources than the ecosphere can reproduce. This is similar to that household which starts using up the available capital and is not living from the interests brought by the capital. On long term it results the degradation of the capital (either it is financial or natural).

Good news is that we can act on decreasing the footprint, as it is not necessary to realize our economic activities - besides keeping the present high standard of living - with the present ecological footprint.

 
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