The idea of ecological footprints was first launched and has been followed by many other
contributions. Both MFA, rucksacks and the footprint idea have generated
very fruitful controversies inside ecological economics,
deepening the discussions on how to conceptualize
scale and the state of the environment. The initial
calculations of human appropriation of photosynthesis
were made by Vitousek et al. (1986). This idea has
generated less research in the ecological economics
community, but interesting follow-up calculations
have been made