The document discusses ecological footprints and how they are used to measure human demand on natural resources and the planet's capacity to provide those resources. An ecological footprint calculates the amount of productive land and sea area required to produce all the resources a person consumes and to absorb their waste. For the average person using 23.47 hectares of land compared to the Earth's available 15.71 hectares per person, their footprint is 1.49 times the sustainable level, meaning current consumption is overshooting the planet's capacity by nearly 50%.