Humanity already spent Earth’s 2017 budget by 2 August

8 years ago - Published in Commodities, Finance

August 2 marks this year’s Earth Overshoot Day – the day the world’s consumption of resources exceeds its capacity to regenerate those resources that year.

At the Global Footprint Network NGO, researchers have determined that August 2nd is 2017’s Earth Overshoot Day – the day we have consumed more ecological resources than the earth can regenerate this year. Think of it as going over budget and running up a debt.

“It’s like if we lived on 1.7 earths, but we only have one earth,” explains Mathis Wackernagel, CEO of the Global Footprint Network.

“And the consequences are that we accumulate CO2 in the atmosphere. We are over-harvesting forests in some parts of the world, in some places we are overusing freshwater, we are over-fishing. That’s all a manifestation of using nature more quickly than it renews.”

The Earth Overshoot Day measure has been calculated since 1986 and the day has never fallen so early as in 2017. It looks at the balance between global footprint – what humans take from the earth – and biocapacity, which allows us to produce resources and absorb our waste.

In the 1980s, the overshoot day fell in November, shifting back to October by 1993 and to September just after the millennium. By 2016 it had reached 8 August.

Scientists also calculate the overshoot day for individual countries, providing a measure of where the day would fall if the whole world consumed the same as one country.

The Global Footprint Network reported that food makes up 26 per cent of our global footprint, and if we cut food waste in half, ate less protein-intensive foods and consumed more fruit and vegetables, it could be reduced to 16 per cent. Our carbon footprint has the largest impact at 60 per cent.

There was some good news. While coming earlier every year, the advance of Earth Overshoot Day has slowed down, said the statement.

Individuals can contribute to stopping, and eventually reversing, the trend by eating less meat, burning less fuel, and cut back on food waste, said the report.