July 29 marked an extremely ominous day for our Earth – Earth Overshoot Day (EOD).
Since this day, humans have officially used up all the resources that the planet can recover for the whole of 2019. In other words, every human action from this moment on is depriving a part of resources. sustainability for future generations.
Earth Overshoot Day is coming earlier and earlier.
Before the 1970s, human consumption of resources was still within the range of what Earth could recover. However, people are increasingly exploiting incessantly, and finally December 1973 was the first year we used resources beyond the recovery threshold of the year.
In 2019, this day falls on July 29. It is 2 days earlier than 2018 (1/8/2018) while 2017 is 3/8. In other words, Earth Overshoot Day is coming earlier and earlier , and this year is the earliest in history.
According to the international sustainability organization Global Footprint Network (GFN), Earth Crossing Day has come a total of two months earlier over the past 20 years. This means that humans are currently using natural resources 1.75 times faster than ecosystems are recovering.
In other words, we have a planet, but using the same amount of resources as 1.75 times the capacity to load it.
Earth Overshoot Day is a campaign by the GFN organization to warn people about the limited natural resources of the Earth.
This day is calculated by comparing the amount of ecological resources that the Earth can regenerate in a year with the needs of human consumption in that year.
Mathis Wackernagel, co-inventor of the term Ecological Footprint and founder of GFN, said: “We only have ONE Earth – this is the definitive number for species survival. We can’t abuse 1.75 Earth and think it won’t cause any harm.”
If all people on Earth lived like Americans, we would need 5 Earths to suffice.
In just the first seven months of the year, humans have exhausted the amount of water, soil, clean air and other resources the planet can regenerate in 2019. From now until December, all resources we use are all unsustainable (hard to renewable) resources in the future.
Besides, almost all human waste goes beyond the natural cycle, and has the potential to harm the environment. Waste recycling is too slow, while natural consumption (such as harvesting and consuming vegetables, meat, fish, etc.) is too fast.
According to GFN, the overshoot occurs because we have used up all the available capital of nature. And the price we pay is increasingly evident in deforestation, soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, or the accumulation of more and more CO2 in the atmosphere.
#MoveTheDay is a sub-campaign of Earth Crossing Day, launched with the goal of pushing back the threshold day by five days each year. This “allows humanity to achieve a 1:1 compatibility with the planet by 2050”.
This campaign was launched with the goal of pushing back the day that crosses the threshold five days a year.
GFN says we can do this campaign in five areas: urban, energy, food, population and planet.
A 50% reduction in CO2 emissions from fossil fuel consumption, for example, would move this time up to 93 days.
There are many things that each of us can individually do to help the Earth move towards sustainability, such as:
With these small actions, you have been able to partially help the #MoveTheDate campaign, opening up the opportunity to restore a green, clean and sustainable Earth for future generations.