Sustainability: Key findings

Authors

Bob Speirs, Marty Gellender, James Kastelein, Andrew Calverley, Cam Mackenzie and Rebecca Storey, Environmental Protection Agency

Christine Williams and Vicki Hall, Environmental Protection Agency

In 2007, water security, drought and cleaner energy have become dominant issues of community concern and public policy debate, the consequence of increasingly compelling evidence of climate change. The principles of sustainability persist unchanging.
An emerging indicator of sustainability is our ecological footprint, which is a measure of how much of the Earth's ecological productive capacity it takes to support each of us.
The average Queensland resident has an ecological footprint of 7.19 global hectares (gha), nearly three and a half times higher than the world average. This equates to a total footprint of 27 million hectares, or 16% of the state's land area.

Last reviewed 17 May 2011
Last updated 5 February 2008