When humanity’s demands on Nature’s resources exceeds its limit we call it ‘Earth Overshoot Day‘ It simply means that, from that moment until the end of the year, everything we’ll use from mother Nature is TOO MUCH.
Unfortunately for the Earth (and mostly for us) it’s only August, and today we reach the ‘Earth Overshoot Day’ meaning we have almost half a year of using natural resources above the safety line. How stupid and irresponsible…
IFLScience says:
“Today is a bad day for planet Earth. We’ve just reached Earth Overshoot Day, the date by which humanity has used up its yearly “allowance” of Earth’s natural resources – and it’s earlier than it has ever been before.”
“With humanity’s appetite for natural resources continuing to grow, this day is creeping up sooner and sooner each year. Last year, we used our fill by August 9, five years ago it was August 11, 10 years ago it was August 24, and 40 years ago it was November 19.”
Even though the rate at which ‘Earth Overshoot Day’ was going backwards has slowed down the past couple of years, we need to shift its direction.
“The Paris climate agreement is the strongest statement yet about the need to drastically reduce the carbon Footprint, the largest contributor to Earth overshoot. Ultimately, collapse or stability is a choice,” Mathis Wackernagel, co-founder and CEO of Global Footprint Network, said in the statement. “We forcefully recommend nations, cities and individuals take swift, bold actions to make the Paris goals an attainable reality.”
Sources:
– IFLScience;
