Earth Overshoot Day comes earlier and earlier each year, and it’s not exactly something to get excited about.
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It’s less than eight months into 2016 and the ominous day is already almost upon us: Earth Overshoot Day, previously known as Ecological Debt Day, is a reminder of the enormous toll we take on the Earth. Last year’s Overshoot Day was August 13, six days earlier 2014’s.
The GFN predicts that by around 2030, Earth Overshoot Day will come halfway through the year – meaning it would take two entire Earths to sustain our species’ consumption by then.
The timing of Earth Overshoot Day is calculated by worldwide think tank Global Footprint Network.
This is not a holiday – it is the date each year when humanity’s demand on natural resources exceeds what the Earth would be able to regenerate in that year. If we adhere to the goals set by the Paris climate agreement adopted by almost 200 countries in December 2015, the carbon Footprint will need to gradually fall to zero by 2050.
“The good news is that it is possible with current technology, and financially advantageous with overall benefits exceeding costs”, he said in a statement.
Wackernagel says such a shift will stimulate emerging sectors like renewable energy, while reducing risks and costs associated with the impacts of climate change.
“Globally, the longer we go on pretending that natural resources are unlimited, the faster we are jeopardizing the very capacity of our planet to provide us with the renewable resources that we need to feed, clothe, and shelter ourselves”, Winkler said.
Carbon emissions are the biggest contributor to the overshoot, with the greenhouse gas now making up 60 per cent of humanity’s demand on nature, or the ecological footprint.
Fortunately, some countries are embracing the challenge.
If everyone in the world lived like Americans, we’d need 4.8 planets to have enough to go around – Australians are even worse, using up 5.4 planets worth of resources each year. Portugal, Germany and Britain also demonstrated groundbreaking levels of renewable energy capability this year, when 100% of their electricity demand was met by renewables for several minutes or, in the case of Portugal, for several days. Data from the National Footprint Accounts 2016 by World Bank suggests that cropland and forest footprints were the largest components of India’s overall ecological footprint, until the late 1980s, when the carbon footprint took over in the late 2000s.
The passage of the Paris climate agreement late previous year is the strongest indication that the level of global political needed to address climate change exists, said Wackernagel.
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Global Footprint Network is a research organization that is changing how the world manages its natural resources and responds to climate change.
