Today at ICTA, the entire group attended a seminar by Francisco Vergas Serrano on the earth's bio-capacity and the eco-efficiency of countries in 2009 and 2013. In the data envelopment analysis (DEA) used, eco-efficiency is defined as the ratio of economic value added to environmental pressures. In this particular study, ecological footprint was used as an indicator. Interestingly, 70% of countries did not improve their ecological footprint between these years. Following the seminar, Xavier "surprised" the group with some champagne and a sweet treat that is typically served at Christmastime. After doing a little reading on traditional Christmas treats in Spain, I think we shared some Spanish turrones: a bar of eggs, honey, sugar, and almonds! Overall, it was great to end the workweek with an interesting seminar and a festive group meeting. Stay tuned for Monday's blog to hear about some weekend adventures; I will be heading to Madrid tonight :)
Fun fact of the day: The United States makes up 25% of the global ecological foot print even though it only makes up 5% of the global population. In Serrano's presentation, he had to represent the US in billions of hectares in his graph, and all other regions were able to be represented in millions when discussing ecological footprint. That should help put it into perspective!
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