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ENVIRONMENTALISTS marked “Earth overshoot day” today, saying that August 1 was the date on which humanity had finished using up all the resources that the planet can provide for 2018.
Earth overshoot day of the year is when people have used up the food, timber and other natural products that the Earth can sustainably provide and the planet has absorbed as much carbon gas emitted as a result of human activity as it can.
The Global Footprint Network, which calculates the date, said this year’s overshoot day fell on the earliest date since humans began overusing the planet’s natural resources in the 1970s.
It means humanity is now consuming nature 1.7 times faster than the planet's natural systems can cope with, the equivalent of using 1.7 Earths, and it would take 2.9 Earths to sustain the world if everyone lived like the people of Britain.
Global Footprint Network chief executive Mathis Wackernagel warned: “Our economies are running a Ponzi scheme with our planet.”
