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Climate change Climate change

3.2 Enviromental indicators 3.2.1 The Water Footprint

Environmental indicators are simple
measures that tell us what is happening to Water impacts can also be
our environment. Criteria and frameworks measured as the water
are used to help people in their decisions. footprint (Baldwin 2015, 21).

Harmaala & Jallinoja (2012, 134-135) say that environmental burden
of products and services can be measured by the so-called “ecological
backpack” method. “Ecological backpack” tells you about the amount of
material needed to make a product. This is often called ecological footprint. http://waterfootprint.org/en/

The “Ecological backpack” measurement can illustrate the ecological
footprint easily. Harmaala & Jallinoja (2012, 135) continue that also often
counts the carbon footprint which tells about the product life cycle. The
carbon footprint is expressed as mass, that is, the total amount of carbon
dioxide or carbon dioxide equivalents most often in kilograms or tons. The water footprint is an indicator of water use that looks at both the direct and
(Harmaala & Jallinoja, 2012, 135.) indirect water use of a consumer or producer. In the water footprint calculator

Since the environment is very complex, indicators provide a more practical food consumption is the largest contribution. The Water footprint was created
and economical way to track the state of the environment than if we attempted in 2002 by Professor Arjen Hoekstra from the University of Twente in the
to record every possible variable in the environment. Netherlands.
Photo from Åland, Finland by Mika Heino. (CC-BY-NC-ND) (Baldwin 2015, 20-21.)
Example: Clean water

Why water footprint is important? Because, clean freshwater is important to all
of us, but a significant part of world population does not have clean water. This
situation is protracted to get worse. Baldwin (2015, 20-21) says that it will be
evident that over 60% of population will be out of clean water in the future. All
food production needs water. Therefor agriculture is responsible for using 2/3
of our fresh water.
(Baldwin 2015, 20-21.)

HEALTHY FOOD CHOICES FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE – HEALTHY FUTURE HEALTHY FOOD CHOICES FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE – HEALTHY FUTURE
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