This year, July 29th marks Earth Overshoot Day – the date on which we’ve burnt through the amount of resources our planet can renew in a year.
Every year we blow this ecological budget earlier and earlier and at our current rate of resource use we’d need 1.75 planets to support our demand on Earth’s ecosystem.
The calculations includes resources such as the amount of water, land, fish and forests we use as well as how much CO2 we’re pumping into the atmosphere – basically a measure of our ecological footprint.
Our carbon footprint specifically is now 60 percent of our total global ecological footprint – with a massive 33 days of our budget overshoot used up due to CO2 emissions alone.
Before the 1970s, our resource use remained within the boundaries of what our planet could produce – in 1961, we only used three-quarters of our annual resources. But since then, our resource use has spiralled out of control.
We Just Used Up All of Earth’s Resources For The Year, And It’s Only July
This year, July 29th marks Earth Overshoot Day – the date on which we’ve burnt through the amount of resources our planet can renew in a year.
Every year we blow this ecological budget earlier and earlier and at our current rate of resource use we’d need 1.75 planets to support our demand on Earth’s ecosystem.
The calculations includes resources such as the amount of water, land, fish and forests we use as well as how much CO2 we’re pumping into the atmosphere – basically a measure of our ecological footprint.
Our carbon footprint specifically is now 60 percent of our total global ecological footprint – with a massive 33 days of our budget overshoot used up due to CO2 emissions alone.
Before the 1970s, our resource use remained within the boundaries of what our planet could produce – in 1961, we only used three-quarters of our annual resources. But since then, our resource use has spiralled out of control.
We Just Used Up All of Earth’s Resources For The Year, And It’s Only July
TESSA KOUMOUNDOUROS – Science Alert