From the Perspective of History of Science and Technology to View the Resources Utilization and Sustainable Development Combined with Ecological Footprint Analysis: A Case of Shanghai

For a long time, development, resources and environment have been the key concerns of human beings. Taking resources and environment as the starting point, this paper reviews different stages of human development from a historical perspective. Meanwhile, it judges the trend of resource utilization, ecological balance and sustainable development with a quantitative framework. In the specific assessment, ecological footprint analysis is selected as the research method. Shanghai was chosen as a case study to explore whether the current situation was in line with the law of history. The results have shown that in 2016, the per capita ecological footprint of Shanghai was about 3.63 global hectares, while the per capita bio-capacity was only 0.11 global hectares. There exists a big gap between the two indicators. The energy footprint is particularly significant, which indicates the urgent need for the structural transformation of energy consumption and optimization of energy utilization efficiency. This paper aims to clarify the theoretical relationship among social development, resource utilization and ecological environment to reveal increasing shortage of resources and the gradual degradation of ecological environment, and to prove the trend with empirical analysis.