Today is Earth Overshoot Day–the day humanity will have used all the resources nature will generate this year, according to Global Footprint Network data
"Beyond that day, we move into the ecological equivalent of deficit spending, utilizing resources at a rate faster than what the planet can regenerate in a calendar year," the environmental advocacy group says on its website.
Earth Overshoot day (also known as Ecological Debt Day) is a concept devised by Global Footprint Network partner, nef (the new economics foundation). Each year, Global Footprint Network calculates humanity’s ecological footprint (it’s demand on cropland, pasture, forests and fisheries), and compares this with global biocapacity, the ability of these ecosystems to generate resources and absorb waste.
Global Footprint Network says ecological footprint accounting can be used to determine the exact date the global community begins living beyond the means of what the planet can regenerate in a calendar year.
This year the date arrived two weeks earlier than in 2007, and according to the groups calculations humanity will use 40% more resources than the earth is able to regenerate this year, resulting in climage change, declining biodiversity, shrinking forests, fisheries collapse and rising food prices.
Humanity first went into overshoot in 1986; before that time the global community consumed resources and produced carbon dioxide at a rate consistent with what the planet could produce and reabsorb.
To learn more about ecological footprint accounting, visit Global Footprint Network online.
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