"Socio-economic design and nature": A possible representation through ecological footprint

No society would be able to function without the support of healthy forests, clean waters, fertile soils, and other types of ecological capital that provide resources for our use and absorb the wastes we generate. These ecosystem services can be measured through an environmental indicator named biocapacity. On the other side, an environmental tool named Ecological Footprint can be used to measure human consumption related to life style. The main aim of this paper is to verify if a correlation exists between these two parameters and the well being perceived by humans. Data on Life Satisfaction was used as a subjective measure of the satisfaction level perceived by humans. The analysis performed in this study helped one to understand whether our pattern of development is able to make us happy, and whether it is possible to be happy without cost to our planet. The analysis was based on a database of about 130 countries of the world. A geographically based analysis was also performed to compare regional to global trends. Finally, some case studies were presented in time series to analyze the temporal evolution of these three parameters. © 2010 WIT Press.