September 23rd was Earth Overshoot Day

According to Global Footprint Network (no, there’s no direct connection with this magazine) the world is now using more ecological resources than it is capable of producing, or regenerating, in a given year. They’ve done the math and worked out that we’re now using 40% more resources that can be regenerated in a year.

Earth Overshoot Day is the day on which our total Ecological Footprint (measured in global hectares) is equal to the biocapacity (also measured in global hectares) that nature can regenerate in that year.  For the rest of the year, we are accumulating debt by depleting our natural capital and letting waste accumulate.

They calculated that in 2008, we took just 267 days to use up the biosphere’s entire capacity for the year. The 267th day of the year was September 23 - Earth Overshoot Day.   That day has been creeping earlier and earlier each year since we first broke into negative territory in 1986.

See: www.footprintnetwork.org