Humans Have Used Up A Year's Worth Of The Earth's Resources In 8 Months

[onehandle]

Source: Huffington Post

Less than eight months into 2015, humans have already consumed a year's worth of the Earth's resources.

Ecological Debt Day, or Earth Overshoot Day, falls on Thursday and marks the point in the year when "humanity’s annual demand for the goods and services that our land and seas can provide -- fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, wood, cotton for clothing, and carbon dioxide absorption -- exceeds what Earth’s ecosystems can renew in a year," the international think tank Global Footprint Network explains in the video below.

This means that for the rest of 2015, we will be "living on resources borrowed from future generations," the World Wildlife Fund said. It's like overdrawing a bank account.

The earth is going into ecological debt earlier each year, The Guardian notes. This year's Earth Overshoot Day is six days ahead of last year's, and months earlier than in 2000, when it arrived in October.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ecological-debt-day-2015_55cbc544e4b0cacb8d32ed58

[daleanime]

1. kick, kick, kick.....

And bookmarked.

[chernabog]

2. Go vegan.

Save resources.

[yeoman6987]

7. Would be nice if China's air didn't come over here

I know can't be stopped. Going vegan is not possible for super majority. I know it would be next to impossible for me to give up steak. I think keeping meat down to 4 times a week for population might be a better goal and doable. I think instead of blanket quit meat, a better solution might be cut down some. Maybe some may be willing to do that.

[chernabog]

9. Nobody needs to eat steak.

It would be nice if people tried to overcome their desires to consume flesh to try and save animals and the planet.
I didn't think I could give up meat, but I did and it was easy once you think about all the animals you are not killing and all the resources you are not wasting.

[yeoman6987]

10. Nobody needs to do a lot of things

But that's life. I don't need steak or meat but enjoy them a lot. I have no desire to quote eating meat so I probably never will. I was just giving alternatives but you seem to want blanket no meat. Good luck getting that message out.

[chernabog]

13. So basically,

You're just saying fuck it. The alternatives you gave are laughable, and that tells me you don't want any real environmental change. You sound like a toddler that won't give up a pacifier.

[yeoman6987]

14. I would like to see you stop driving in all modes of transportation

And just walk to all destinations. That would save the environment. More saving the planet.

[Codeine]

12. Easier to bitch on a message board

and blame the Chinese, because without double handfuls of ranch-soaked bacon-wrapped beef medallions being rammed down our throats three times a day we'll die or be unhappy or something.

[yeoman6987]

15. If we would just stop all modes of transportation,

That would do way more for the planet then what is suggested. I hope you never use transportation again. That is what is damaging our world.

[chernabog]

16. Have a link for that?

Because I know livestock farming has a much greater global impact than transportation.

http://epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/n2o.html
http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/News/2006/1000448/index.html
http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/ffarms.asp
http://science.time.com/2013/12/16/the-triple-whopper-environmental-impact-of-global-meat-production/
https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-factory-farms-and-environment

You have no argument

[yeoman6987]

17. On keep driving. Actually you do what you think is right for the world

And I'll do the same. I always thought emissions were bad but you corrected me.

[chernabog]

19. Transportation is a necessity

for many people, eating meat is not.
I just don't understand. If one claims to care about the environment at all, why not do the easiest thing that has the greatest impact and give up meat?
I mean, I could see a republican not giving a shit and say, "I could never give up my steak!!!1!!". But on a democratic forum, just makes no sense.

[yeoman6987]

20. I just told you the truth that it would be hard for me to give up steak

It would be. Does that mean I never will? No but I think that cutting down is a good start.

[FLPanhandle]

3. Too many humans on this planet

Way too many

[navarth]

4. ecchhh....

human nature. Sadly, we will get what we deserve.

The true shame is that we will take so many innocent species down with us.

[LiberalElite]

5. "Nature bats last"

I knew that quote but I never heard of Earth Overshoot Day.

[seveneyes]

6. Kill ourselves now!

[Binkie The Clown]

8. That means that each year, we use up 1.5 years worth of renewable reacources.

The problem is far worse, however, because we also use up about 7 million years worth of fossil fuels each year. And those aren't renewable. When they're gone, they're gone for the next 150 million years.

[yeoman6987]

11. Who put those percentages out?

You can arbitrarily use any limit number to show resources. How can you measure much to use in any given year? 1 type of meat per day times 7 million? 2 gallons of gas per day times 7 million? 100 KW of light usage per day times 7 million? I'd like to know who approved of the numbers used.

[Sunlei]

18. not the sunshine,not the land cleared of wildlife. That used to renew itself for thousands of years

Lands that 'renewed' all by itself, with millions of wild herds, who created the grasslands in the first place.