Ecological footprint through academic training

Abstract

Objective: Evaluate and compare the ecological footprint (EF) in different stages of academic training, during the years 2022 and 2023.

Materials and methods: This research work had a qualitative approach, where the evaluation instrument of Ibarra-Cisneros and Monroy-Ata (2014) was taken, which is designed for Mexican culture.

Results: The largest component of the EF is transportation in both years and the lowest contribution is the forestry sector. The EF calculated for the total number of respondents showed that in 2022 with 2.41 gha was significantly higher than for 2023 with 1.99 gha. The EF with respect to educational level, for both years, was higher for high school students and teachers, but not for undergraduate students. However, the results of all educational levels are above the biocapacity of the planet (1.51 gha) for that period.

Conclusions: The purchasing power is related to HE and not necessarily the educational level. The transportation and energy sectors contributed the most to the environmental impact, since their almost exclusive dependence on fossil fuels directly impacts the generation of GHG

Keywords: Carrying capacity; environmental impact; environmental education.