Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Environment

Ireland has the 10th largest ecological footprint

Out little nation has been identified as one of the world’s worst ecological offenders in a new international report.

WE MIGHT LOOK green but we most certainly aren’t – according to a major international report examining the ecological footprint of each of the world’s nations.

Ireland has been ranked as having the 10th largest ecological footprint in the world by the Living Planet Report 2010 Ecological Footprint Index.

The report examines the consumption of natural resources and the changing state of ecosystems, in order to determine the possible consequences these factors could have on the rest of the world.

The report claims that Ireland has one of the worst records for excessive consumption of natural resources.

(Read the full report, carried out by the World Wildlife Fund.)

The report tracks the amount of biologically productive land and water available per person on the planet, which it refers to as ‘global hectares’. On average, people in Ireland consume over six global hectares each – more than double the amount used by individuals in European countries like Hungary and Romania.

The director of Friends of the Earth, Tony Lowes, spoke to the Irish Examiner, saying:

What is disappointing is that the Department of the Environment has spent more than €10 million in a campaign to encourage the nation to change its habits over the last three years.

Lowes said that the benefits of the campaign had been eclipsed by the government’s “unsustainable national policies, especially in transport and spatial planning”.