This Monday, humanity used the resources budget that nature provides for the whole year, according to the Global Footprint Network.
It is known as the “Earth Overdraft Day” to the date on which the demand for natural resources exceeds what the planet’s ecosystems can renew over a period of one year. And that date comes earlier and earlier.
In the last 20 years, three months have been advanced, until July 29 of this year, the earliest date recorded in history. Qatar and Luxembourg were the first countries to end the availability of their resources.
Adding the demands that people have, what is known as an ecological footprint (food, wood, fibers, carbon sequestration, and infrastructure), it was found that humanity is using 1.75 Lands.
The costs of this global ecological overexploitation are increasingly evident throughout the world, in the form of deforestation, soil erosion, loss of biodiversity and accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which intensifies climate change, and causes droughts, more severe forest fires and hurricanes (or more frequently).
“Human activity will inevitably adjust to the ecological capacity of the Earth. The question is whether we choose to get there by disaster or by design if we seek the misery of a planet or prosperity, ”says Mathis Wackernagel, founder of the Global Footprint Network.
But there are solutions. Substituting 50 percent of meat consumption for a vegetarian diet would delay the date by 15 days, says Wackernagel.
Currently, carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels constitute 60 percent of humanity’s ecological footprint.
