How does ecological footprinting deal with pollution such as sulphur dioxide?
The ecological footprint only addresses human uses of nature that can potentially be sustainable. In other words, there is no ecological footprint for plutonium or other accumulating toxic materials. It is reasonable to say that these substances are fundamentally at odds with sustainability and must be phased out. Since the footprint does not (and cannot) include them, they need to be monitored separately. Renewable materials, on the other hand, do have a footprint. Some of these footprints are not included in current calculations due to lack of data. In theory it is possible to calculate the loss of bioproductivity from pollutants such as SO2. A certain amount of acidity may be tolerated or absorbed by soils. More may lead to a loss of bioproductivity (which would add to the footprint). Too much SO2 may start to accumulate and leave soils damaged. As the relationship between pollution and damage is subject to geographical differences and not always linear, generic assumptions about po
