Comstock/Thinkstock
READ MORE ABOUT:
We hear a lot about overconsumption, and how our resource-heavy lifestyles are depleting the earth's resources. But exact numbers—how much we're using and how quickly—are much harder to come by.
Enter the Global Footprint Network, which for the last few years has calculated out the point in the year at which the world's population has exceeded the resources available to sustain it: Earth Overshoot Day.
How the Global Footprint Network describes Earth Overshoot Day:
Every year, Global Footprint Network calculates nature's supply in the form of biocapacity, the amount of resources the planet generates, and compares that to human demand: the amount it takes to produce all the living resources we consume and absorb our carbon dioxide emissions. Earth Overshoot Day, a concept devised by U.K.-based new economics foundation, marks the day when demand on ecological services begins to exceed the renewable supply.
Also called Ecological Debt Day, the milestone has arrived this year (today, August 21) a full month earlier than last.
The calculation takes faster resource consumption into account but is also based on improved data analysis—an example of which, according to NEF, is that new research shows the world has less grazing land available than was previously estimated.
The New Economics Foundation cites our intensive use of fossil fuels as a chief factor driving our rapid resource consumption, and provides a few stellar examples of how we use up energy so quickly and illogically. The examples are UK-specific, but it is fair to assume a parallel situation in the U.S.
We exported 131,000 tonnes of chewing gum to Spain and imported 125,00 tonnes back again.The UK exported 3,300 tonnes of soft toys to New Zealand, and then imported 2,400 tonnes back again.
We exported 43,000 tonnes of toffee to France while at the same time importing 39,000 tonnes from the French.
To see how you fit into the puzzle, you can start by calculating your own footprint. It's the first step to figuring out how to reduce it.
More about resource consumption:
Your Ecological Footprint: Defining, Calculating, and Reducing Your Environmental Footprint
Can One Climate Change Presentation Inspire an Entire High School?
5 Human Habits Highly Harmful to the Ocean
