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GF33 - the world in thirds
 It's not an exact science, just
another way of looking at the world.
Take
the World average global footprint (2.2
global hectares per person) and the footprint which represents the earth's
total biocapacity for the population (1.8), then select the countries
around these two points which contain a third of the population of the
planet+. This is the mid-third,
or GF33.
We then find something interesting about
the other two 'thirds':
- the top 'third'
(3 gha per person or above) contains just 20% of the
population
- the bottom 'third'
(1.5 gha per person or less) contains almost half
(47%) of the world's population.
Click on the diagram or on the links for
more details and a list of countries in each third.
So what?
What is GF33?
It's a third of the world's population (the middle third) and a way of
looking at the world to remind us of how much 'civilization' actually
consumes - think of this third as a counter-balance
to the G8!
- The mid-third of the
world's population: one third of the world's population lives in
countries which have a footprint of between 1.6 and 2.9 global
hectares per person - click here to see which they
are. Many of these countries, including China
and
Mexico, are developing fast.
- Voices from
the middle: Does the world need to be
led by those at the top of the countries which consume the most? Only one of the
permanent members of the UN Security Council - China - is among the
middle third
of the world. Every one of the countries of the G8 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) has
a footprint which is higher than 3.0. Time for the voices from
the middle to be heard.
- A global
footprint to aim for: if we in
the industrialised world are serious about reducing our own impact on
the environment, the kind of footprint to aim for should be around 3,
despite the radical re-thinking of our systems (government,
governance, planning, commerce etc) which would be
involved.
The
UK has an average footprint of 5.6 global hectares per person, with
prosperous areas even higher (for example, 6.6 or more for Kensington
& Chelsea, 6.5 for Guildford and Epsom & Ewell*).
For the US, the average footprint is higher still, at 9.7,
whilst the United Arab Emirates (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm
Al-Qaiwain, Ras Al-Khaimah and Fujairah) has the largest
footprint of all countries at 10.5.
(*source:
Stockholm Environment Institute York, REAP website
- free but requires registration)
In the top 'third'
of the world, we need to re-learn how to live within our ecological
means. In countries which are developing, the value of the less
resource-heavy ways of life need to respected, and skills shared, as
important information for the future of the planet.
GF33 is also a method with
resources - using community media
to bring the voices of ordinary people into the debate; it can also become
a network, an online
broadcast - and much more.
Data:
Unless
otherwise credited, all
statistics are from the 2005
National Footprint Accounts published on the Global
Footprint Network website. The data used in the Accounts relates to
2002.
+The total used is the total for countries publishing National Footprint
Accounts (148 countries).
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