Final answer:
The term for the amount of biologically productive land and sea needed to sustain human consumption and waste is the global ecological footprint. With current trends, the human ecological footprint is increasing, which may lead to ecological strain and a decrease in biodiversity.
Step-by-step explanation:
The amount of biologically productive land and sea required to produce the resources consumed and to absorb the waste of the human population is termed as the global ecological footprint. The ecological footprint measures the demand on and supply of nature. Currently, the land area present on Earth is not sufficient to support the resource demands of the human population. As the human population continues to grow, the ecological footprint will potentially increase as well, leading to ecological strain and the potential for population crash due to resource scarcity.
Environmental Biology highlights that if the less affluent societies were to reach the consumption levels of industrialized countries, the resultant ecological devastation would be significant. Moreover, with over 7 billion people, the pressure on food-producing ecosystems is immense, contributing to land degradation and threatening global biodiversity and the survival of many species.