The UAE has experienced a long period of extraordinary economic growth due to the capitalization of its oil and gas resources, which in turn, has led to rapid development and improved living standards. However, to sustain this development we have been consuming increasing amounts of natural resources such as energy, timber, food and fibre accessed from both within and outside our borders. The UAE also has one of the world's most hot and dry environments, so it's no surprise that we're also one of the world's biggest consumers of energy per person in order to produce for example, water from desalination and cooling from our air conditioners.
Apart from our supplies of energy and the sun, we have very few natural resources. As you will see in the next section, our high footprint tells us that we are consuming more natural resources than what the planet can naturally regenerate. And If we keep using them without care or responsibility, there can only be one conclusion: one day they will run out. This is not the legacy we want to leave for future generations.
We need to take action now. We need to start calculating our consumption of natural resources, so we can keep track of how much we're using, be more conscious of our consumption patterns and develop new ways to reduce wasteful consumption and use those resources more wisely.
The Ecological Footprint is a form of measurement that can help us make this important calculation.
