The Global Footprint Network performs the public service of calculating how rapidly we are devouring the Earth’s natural resources. The Network is a charitable not-for-profit independent think tank headquartered in Oakland, California. It brings together over 70 partner organizations with the goal of developing and promoting tools for advancing sustainability.
Continue readingTag: Earth Overshoot Day
Views from the Beltline: Whoops! We overshot … again
According to the Global Footprint Network, August 22nd was Earth Overshoot Day. The day “marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year.” In other words, it represents a budget for the planet’s ecological resources. Unfortunately,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Global Population Gets Greedier By The Day
That is the opening line in the following report that deals with Earth Overshoot Day, the day our species uses up the Earth’s finite resources that should take a year to use. As my friend Mound often says, the climate-change disaster rapidly bearing down on us is but one part
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: An Obituary for a Planet? "Climate Change Has Run Its Course" – WSJ
Has the plutocracy outwaited the climate change issue? According to the Wall Street Journal the global political caste has lost interest in the whole carbon emissions cutting thing. That’s over. Climate change is over. No, I’m not saying the climate will not change in the future, or that human influence on
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: We only have one Earth, and we’re overshooting its capacity
As our burgeoning demands on the Earth continue to overshoot its capacity to renew resources, it’s time for a serious rethink, argues David Suzuki. Basically, we’re “using up the biological capital that should be our children’s legacy.” The post We only have one Earth, and we’re overshooting its capacity appeared
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Big Day Tomorrow – It’s Earth Overshoot Day – August 13, 2015.
Tomorrow is Earth Overshoot Day, the date on which mankind has gobbled up a full year’s worth of renewable resources – biomass, water and such. The date falls a couple of days earlier every year as we increase our consumption levels beyond our planet’s carrying capacity. Each year brings us
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: And the Band Played On
It’s generally accepted in the scientific community that it takes one to several centuries, on average, for species to truly adapt to a 1 degree Celsius shift in temperature, up or down. Look around today and you’ll see species “running” for their lives, continually migrating ever further away from the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: When Overshoot Meets Inequality
Tuesday marked Earth Overshoot Day, 2014. August 19th was the day by which humankind had consumed an entire year’s production of renewable resources. Overall that means we’re using resources more than 1.5 times the rate at which the Earth can replace them. EOD is a moving target that, unfortunately, keeps
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Earth Overshoot Day – August 22, 2012
In 2006 when I first wrote of it, it happened on October 9th. Just six years later it has crept up to August 22, almost seven weeks earlier. “It” is Earth Overshoot Day, the benchmark of our planet’s day of ecological reckoning. It’s the day on which mankind is determined
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