环境载荷与环境压强:环境压力指标及应用

一个国家的经济活动产生的环境压力与其具有的环境承载能力。决定了该国社会与经济发展的可持续状况。因此．测度环境压力和承载力是制定可持续发展目标和政策的必要条件之一。基于国家尺度的社会代谢物质流、地理面积和生态承载面积。可以构建出一个国家本国环境所承受的环境压力总量指标体系——环境载荷和环境压强；德国、荷兰、奥地利、日本和美国等五个工业国家的环境载荷和各环境压强总量指标若干年的实证计算和对比分析。可以发现．虽然美国的国内环境总载荷、人均物质总需求及人均生态足迹赤字等均是各国最高者．其环境压强却处于五国的最低端。与奥地利相近；以环境压强指标测度。除日本不明显外．其余四国的经济发展与本国环境压力之间在研究期（1975—1996）均显示出“脱钩”关系．即本国环境压强并没有随经济总量的增长而增加。为此．最后就环境问题的公平性和环境压力指标的优缺点进行简要讨论。

Environmental Loading and Environmental Stress Indicators and Their Application

The environmental pressure created by a nation's economic activities and the environmental carrying capacity of the nation determine the sustainability of the nation's social and economic development.Measuring the environmental pressure and carrying capacity of a nation is,therefore,a necessary prerequisite for setting development goals and devising policy instruments toward a sustainable future for that nation.Domestic environmental loading and environmental stress indicators have been formulated in this study,based on the material flows of societal metabolism,geographical area and biological carrying capacity at the national level.The indicators were applied to Germany,Netherlands,Austria,Japan,and the United States and the results analyzed.It was found that,although the United States ranks the highest of all countries in indicators such as total domestic environmental loading,per capita total material requirement,and per capita ecological footprint overshoot,its environmental stress ranks the second lowest of the five countries and is close to that of Austria.When measured in environmental stress,four of the five countries(excluding Japan) exhibit an apparent decoupling between economic development and environmental pressure during the study period of 1975-1996,that is,their respective domestic environmental stress had not increased with their growth in GDP over the period.The issue of environmental equity and the pros and cons of the newly proposed indicators are also briefly discussed.