AUGUST 19 was Earth Overshoot Day: an estimate of the moment in a 12-month

period when humans have consumed more natural resources than the biosphere
can replace and created more waste than it can absorb. To put it simply, in less
than eight months of 2014, the annual supply of land, water and trees and the
planets ability to deal with waste products, including carbon dioxide, have been
used up. This means that humanity is already living off next years supplies, which
in turn means that the next years supplies will end even sooner than this years.
No wonder Earth Overshoot Day is also called Ecological Debt Day.
Earth Overshooting Day does not follow the standard practice of having a fixed
commemorative day and is more of a countdown. It was first commemorated on
December 19, 1987, when humanity was 11 days in debt. Since then, the
ecological debt has been accelerating. In 2000, Earth Overshoot Day occurred in
October. In 2014, it has advanced by two months.
Global Footprint Network (GFN), a 10 year old international think tank that works
to advance sustainability, carries out the calculations for humans overshooting
budgeted supplies. Using a novel resource accounting tool called the Ecological
Footprint, it measures how much nature we have, and how much nature we use.
A link on GFNs website allows even individuals to monitor their own ecological
resource use. The website explains the Footprint as representing two sides of a
Balance Sheet. On the Assets Side, biocapacity represents the planets biologically
productive land areas, including our forests, pastures, cropland and fisheries.
These areas, especially if left unharnessed, can also absorb much of the waste we
generate, especially our carbon emissions. Biocapacity can be compared with
humanitys demand on nature: our Ecological Footprint. The Ecological Footprint
represents the productive area required to provide the renewable resources
humanity is using and to absorb its waste. The productive area currently occupied
by human infrastructure is also included in this calculation, since built-up land is
not available for resource regeneration. In simple terms, the Footprint addresses
whether the planet is large enough to keep up with the demands of humanity.
The obvious conclusion is that the planet certainly does not have the capacity to
keep on satisfying the current rate of human demand. Using the Footprint to

explain the extent of humanitys overshoot, the GFN draws the attention of
governments, investors and opinion leaders and demonstrates to the advantage
of making ecological limits central to decision making.
It is no secret that the planet has a finite quantity of resources that are being used
up faster than they are being replaced. Fifty years ago, most areas of the globe
had more resources than were consumed. But now, 86 percent of the people in
the world live in countries with a huge ecological footprint, where the demands
literally strip the country of its resources at a rate faster than they are being
replenished. The GFN says that since the 1970s humanity has been in ecological
overshoot and estimates that humans today use the equivalent of 1.5 planets to
provide the resources we use and absorb our waste. This means it now takes one
year and six months to regenerate what we use in a year. Even a mild outlook
indicates that a continuation of current population and consumption trends will
mean that, by 2030s, we will need the equivalent of two earths to support us.
Although there should be no doubt about the validity or the seriousness of the
reality of overuse, the question is whether the government and individuals will
bother to take the issue seriously.