Earth Overshoot Day: Time for a radical rethink

[nitpicker]

https://www.dw.com/en/earth-overshoot-day-time-for-a-radical-rethink/a-44907500

Earth Overshoot Day: Time for a radical rethink

Humanity has already used up more resources this year than our planet can regenerate. Each year, Earth Overshoot Day comes earlier. Many say it's time to radically rethink our consumption patterns and economic system. As of Wednesday, August 1, 2018, we have officially used up all of the Earth's resources for the year — and there are still five months left to go.

Back in 1970, Earth Overshoot Day — the date when humanity as a whole has used up the resources needed to live sustainably for a year — fell on December 29, just two days from the end of the year. But since then, we've been increasingly overshooting the planet's annual natural budget, with that day creeping ever earlier on the calendar. In 2017, that day was August 2.

From that day on for the rest of the year, we are running an ecological deficit, depleting local resource stocks through overfishing and overharvesting forests, and emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than ecosystems can absorb.

We currently need 1.7 planets to support all of humanity's demand on Earth's ecosystems, according to Global Footprint Network. Each year, the nonprofit research group calculates the date of the Earth Overshoot Day by taking the planet's biocapacity — that is, the amount of natural resources that are available — and dividing it by the amount of resources we've used up.

But not all countries are equally to blame for overshooting our natural budget. Higher-income countries use far more resources per year than lower-income countries.

Qatar, the richest country in the world as of 2017, has the highest consumption of natural resources on Earth. If the whole population in the world lived like people in Qatar, we would need more than nine planets in total.

In comparison, if everyone lived like people in Nigeria or India, we would need only a bit more than half a planet a year. And with the average lifestyle in Vietnam, we would use up exactly one planet. Of course, this doesn't take into account the differences within each country.

[The_jackalope]

1. Time to reduce the number of humans and the affluence of the remainder

Last edited Thu Aug 2, 2018, 12:45 PM - Edit history (2)

This article is one more example of an effort made in good faith that still fails to grasp the nettle. The "radical rethink" the planet actually needs would begin with a 25% reduction in population and a 25% reduction in the standard of living for the remainder - by 2040. Even that draconian suggestion would be just a baby-step beginning. But as always, who will bell the cat?

My most dire predictions of the last decade about ecological catastrophe as well as obdurate human self-interest are being shown to have been far too optimistic.

Thank the Goddess I have no children. I helped my wife die last year, and this morning I tucked a signed DNR form into my wallet. (That's to shut the pie-holes of the "You first-ers".)

Estamos tan jodidos. Buena suerte a todos.