You probably know it : we consume way too much stuff : food, water, energy… As a matter of fact we consume so much that we are depleting the resources our beautiful planet gives us.
As Business Green noted : ” Today the world dips into its environmental overdraft as mankind’s demands for resources since the beginning of 2013 exceeds what the planet can renew in a year. “
Just like for financial capital, consuming more natural capital than what we have can be excessively dangerous. It is high time we change this.
Here is the article from the Global Footprint Network:
August 20 is Earth Overshoot Day 2013, marking the date when humanity exhausted nature’s budget for the year. We are now operating in overdraft. For the rest of the year, we will maintain our ecological deficit by drawing down local resource stocks and accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Just as a bank statement tracks income against expenditures, Global Footprint Network measures humanity’s demand for and supply of natural resources and ecological services. And the data is sobering. Global Footprint Network estimates that in approximately eight months, we demand more renewable resources and C02 sequestration than what the planet can provide for an entire year.
In 1993, Earth Overshoot Day—the approximate date our resource consumption for a given year exceeds the planet’s ability to replenish—fell on October 21. In 2003, Overshoot Day was on September 22. Given current trends in consumption, one thing is clear: Earth Overshoot Day arrives a few days earlier each year.
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Of course, not all countries are overspending their capital. Global Footprint Network has this great infographic :
Don’t hesitate to go on their website to learn out more.
of course when i attempt to share news of resource overdraft, i am made aware of the fact that i am talking or writing to the generations which have engendered the taste for materialism.
the very people who could scale back abuse of original matter are the ones who deny responsibility. much natural material is spent to make products that often are futile in the course of human life–and very dangerous to the environment at large.
faith in natural restorative powers keeps me hoping that earth and budgets will limit man’s propensity to take life on credit.
Earth / Nature / Gaia is resilient. If we stop soon enough harming Her, we shall keep on living a life that not too far from the lost Eden we enjoyed and keep on enjoying.
Granted, that’s a big, if not huge, IF ! 🙂