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The new familiar Ecological Footprint model supports this conclusion. It's a way of asking how much we're extracting from the planet to live the way we do. Conventional economics tends to see the environment as a subset of the economy. The footprint approach does the reverse, comparing humanity's ecological impact—resources consumed and waste produced—with the amount of productive land and water available to supply key ecosystem services. It deals in averages so the rich/poor divide is blurred. But the message is clear. It takes about 1.8 hectares to sustain the average person on Earth. Those of us in the rich world are way above the average: Canadians each use about eight hectares, and Americans use 10, more than five times the average.
新的為人們所熟悉的“生態足跡”模型證實了這個結論。它讓我們問自己（弄清楚)，保持現有的生活方式，我們到底在從地球上榨取多少資源。傳統的經濟學傾向于把環境看成是經濟的一小部分。而“生態足跡”方法正好相反，它將人類對生態的影響——所消耗的資源和產生的廢棄物——與現有的能提供關鍵生態系統服務的生產性土地和水的數量進行對比。它關注的是人均水平，因此貧富人群對資源需求量的差別就比較模糊，但是它所傳遞的信息很清楚。要維持地球上一個普通人的生命大概需要1.8公頃的土地。那些生活在富裕國家里的人，則大大超過平均水平：每個加拿大人大概需要8公頃，每個美國人則需要10公頃， 超過平均水平的5倍以上。
In 1961, human beings used about half of Earth's biocapacity; by 2006 we were using 44% more than is available. Mathis Wackernagel, one of the founders of the ecological footprint system, says we will need the equivalent of two Earths by the late 2030s to keep up with our demands. Ecologists call this phenomenon "overshoot." It's a temporary state that becomes increasingly untenable as stocks of resources are depleted.
1961年，人類已經消耗了地球大約一半的生態承載力；到2006年,我們消耗掉的生態承載力已超出地球總生態承載力的44%。“生態足跡”體系的創建者之一馬西斯•瓦克納格爾指出，到21世紀30年代后期，我們將需要相當于兩個地球的生態承載力才能滿足我們的需求。生態學家們把這種現象稱之為“透支”。這是一種暫時的狀況，然而，隨著所存資源的不斷減少，這種狀況將日益變得難以為繼。
