ecological footprint

The recession may have slowed global consumption down a bit, but we're still consuming our planet's finite resources faster than it can replenish them, according to the Global Footprint Network.

Friday was an ignominious milestone: Earth entered ecological debt.

As a boy working on his grandparents' farm in eastern Ontario, William Rees found his vocation in life. Rees, a professor at the UBC's School of Community and Regional Planning, calls it his epiphany. It was also the root of his now famous "ecological footprint" that has been adopted by individuals, organizations and policy makers across the globe as a tool for understanding the impact we as humans are having on our environment.