Be aware ! Today is Earth Overshoot Day 2017
Posted on Thursday, August 3, 2017
Posted by : Admin
Be aware ! Today is Earth Overshoot Day 2017
The day by which the human race has used up more natural resources than can be replenished in a year—known as Earth Overshoot Day —has been getting earlier for some time. But in 2017, it’s come earlier than ever before.
As of August 2, human beings have used up its allowance of resources such as water, clean air, and soil for 2017, according to environmental groups the Global Footprint Network and the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF). And there’s still five months to go in the year. Great job guys.
“This means that in seven months, we emitted more carbon than the oceans and forest can absorb in a year, we caught more fish, felled more trees, harvested more, and consumed more water than the Earth was able to produce in the same period,” said the groups in a statement.
Planet Earth has been in resource overshoot since 1971, when the Earth Overshoot Day was on December 21. The date has gradually gotten earlier and earlier. By 1990, it was October 13; by 2000, it had moved forward almost a month to September 23; and in 2010, the date when the planet entered resource deficit was August 9.
The rate at which the date has moved forward has slowed in recent years, but humanity is still using Earth’s resources at a rate 1.7 times faster than they can be regenerated. This means that the human race would need 1.7 planets to meet its resource demand.
The environmental groups have launched a campaign to encourage individuals to make choices that can cut their resource usage, such as eating more vegetarian meals and cutting food waste. The ultimate goal is to move Earth Overshoot Day back by 4.5 days every year; if that were the case, we would return to using the resources of just one planet by 2050. So put down that chicken wing and pick up some spinach.
Source Newsweek
