An ecological footprint is used to estimate how much land and water a population (or person) needs to sustain its lifestyle. It assesses the extent to which our needs exceed the earth's regenerative capacity. Take the quiz at http://www.ecofoot.org/ to evaluate your own ecological footprint.

Then, learn more about the world footprint and national footprints at http://www.footprintnetwork.org/gfn_sub.php?content=footprint_overview. Look up the footprint for the United States . How does it compare to developing countries in Africa and Asia ? How about industrializing countries like China and India ?

What kind of political and economic problems follow from what you have discovered?