Earth Overshoot Day: World Has Utilised A Year’s Worth Of Resources In Seven Months
This year, Earth Overshoot Day is marked globally on August 2. For the rest of year we're in the burning red, with the amount of resources left is negligible. It's the point when the amount of natural resources — think trees, fish and water — humanity takes from the Earth reaches the total that can be regenerated over the entire year. It's when the amount of carbon emitted reaches the amount the forests and oceans are able to absorb.
The Global Footprint Network explained that the consumption has been driven by an increasing population, overfishing, overharvesting foresting, and carbon dioxide emissions. In order to fulfil demands, humans would require 1.7 Earths this year, it added. Humans have been consuming a year’s worth of resources within months for several decades. Last year, Earth Overshoot Day fell on August 8. In 1971, the date was December 21.
The GFN warned that constantly over-using resources can have detrimental effects such as deforestation, drought, and freshwater shortages. 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 bio capacity, which allows us to produce resources and absorb our waste.
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.
In the UK, the day is even earlier, on 4 May.
Campaigners and charities advised individuals to help reverse the trend by eating less meat, burning less fuel and cutting back on food waste.
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.
So how does Earth Overshoot Day 2017 compare with previous years?
Every Earth Overshoot Day since 1969.
As seen in the graph above, the total time that we are using up all our resources is dramatically decreasing. Since 1969, we have been depleting them at a constantly increasing rate.
The below table shows the amount of earths needed if the population of the world lived like the following countries-
