In Chapter 2, the concept of carrying capacity (CC) was introduced. It was defined as the population of a given species that can be supported indefinitely in a given well demarcated habitat (land) without irreversibly damaging the ecosystem on which it is dependent. Thus, CC can be represented by the ratio of land over population (L/P).

In this chapter we define the ecological footprint (EF P) basically as the ratio of P/L, that is, the amount of productive land needed to support a given population. Thus, viewed this way, these two concepts appear to be inversely related. To perhaps indicate the close ties between these two concepts the founders of EFP, Wackernagel and Rees, initially use the phrase ‘appropriated carrying capacity’ to describe EF P. Given this, speculate as to why no one seems to talk about using carrying capacity as an indicator of sustainability with the same fervor as they do for ecological footprint.