Comments due by February 23, 2019
Experts
widely agree that human activities are harming the global environment. Since
the Industrial Revolution, the world economy has grown dramatically. Overall
this is a success story, since rising incomes have lifted millions of people
out of poverty. But it has been fueled by population growth and increasing
consumption of natural resources.
Rising
demand to meet the needs of more than 7 billion people has
transformed land use and generated unprecedented levels of pollution, affecting
biodiversity, forests, wetlands, water bodies, soils and air quality.
On Aug.
1, humans will have consumed more natural resources in 2018 than the Earth can
regenerate this year, according to the California-based Global
Footprint Network. This environmental nonprofit calculates the
annual arrival of Earth Overshoot Day – the date when
humanity’s demands on nature exceed what the network’s analysts estimate the
Earth can regenerate over the entire year. Aug. 1 is the earliest date since
ecological overshoot began in the early 1970s.
Aug. 1 is the earliest arrival
of Earth Overshoot Day since humans started overusing the planet’s resources in
the 1970s.Global
Footprint Network, CC
BY-SA
As an
ecological economist and scholar of sustainability, I am
particularly interested in metrics and indicators that can help us understand
human uses of Earth’s ecosystems. Better measurements of the impacts of human
activities can help identify ways to sustain both human well-being and natural
resources.
Earth
Overshoot Day is a compelling concept and has raised awareness of the growing
impact of human activities on the planet. Unfortunately, the methodology used
to calculate it and the ecological footprint on which it is based is
conceptually flawed and practically unusable in any science or policy context.
In my view, the ecological footprint ultimately does not measure overuse of
natural resources – and it may very well underestimate it.
Rising demands, finite resources
The
Global Footprint Network estimates when Earth Overshoot Day will arrive based
on its National Footprint Accounts. These include
extensive data sets that the organization uses to calculate two overarching
indicators:
·
The ecological footprint, perhaps the most commonly used metric
of the environmental impacts of human resource use. Each country’s ecological
footprint is an estimate of the biological resources required to meet its
population’s consumption demands and absorb its carbon emissions.
·
National biocapacity, which is an estimate of how well each
country’s ecosystems can produce the natural resources consumed by humans and
absorb the waste and pollution that humans generate.
Both of
these measures are expressed in global hectares. One hectare is equal to 10,000
square meters, or about 2.47 acres.
Going into overshoot
To estimate
when Earth Overshoot Day will arrive, the Global Footprint Network calculates
the number of days in a given year for which Earth has enough biocapacity to
provide for humans’ total ecological footprint. The rest of the year represents
“global overshoot.”
When
the footprint of consumption worldwide exceeds biocapacity, the authors assert
that humans are exceeding the regenerative capacity of Earth’s ecosystems. This
year, they estimate that humans are using natural resources 1.7 times faster
than ecosystems can regenerate – or, put another way, consuming 1.7 Earths.
As an
example, the ecological footprint for France is 4.7 global hectares per person,
and global biocapacity is 1.7 hectares per person. Therefore, it would take
(4.7/ 1.7 =) 2.8 Earths if everyone lived like the French.
France’s
Overshoot Day would be estimated as (365 x (1.7/ 4.7)) = 130, or the 130th day
of the year, which is May 5 based on 2014 data. The United States reached overshoot
even earlier, on March 1However, there are some fundamental and misleading
shortcomings in these calculations. In a 2013 paper,
six authors from academia, The Nature Conservancy and the
California-based Breakthrough Instituteanalyzed how the
Ecological Footprint falls short. In their view, it primarily measures humans’ carbon
footprint but does not address other key impacts.
To
calculate ecological footprints, the Global Footprint Network estimates the
supply and demand of renewable biological resources across six land use types:
forests, fishing grounds, croplands, grazing lands, developed lands and the
area of forest required to offset human carbon emissions – that is, the carbon
footprint. According to the network’s own analysis, each of these land use
types is nearly in balance or in surplus, except for the carbon footprint.
The two
key categories for producing food – cropland and grazing land – are defined in
such a way that they can never be in deficit. And the analysis does not reflect
environmental consequences of human use of these lands, such as soil erosion,
nutrient runoff or overuse of water. It measures only land area.
For
example, the ecological footprint for Indonesia is 1.61 global hectares per
person, which is among the lowest 30 percent of all countries. But according to
a 2014 study, Indonesia has the highest deforestation
rate in the world.
Furthermore,
the footprint calculation does not consider whether stocks of natural resources
are decreasing or increasing as a result of human consumption. This question is
critical for understanding ecological impacts.
These
national ecological footprint calculations also conflate sustainability with
self-sufficiency. They assume that every nation should produce all of the
resources it consumes, even though it might be less expensive for countries to
import some goods than to produce them at home.
As an
example, the network lists Canada as an “ecological
creditor” whose biocapacity exceeds its population’s ecological
footprint. However, Canada is among
the top 10 oil-producing countries in the world, and exports much of
that oil for foreign consumption. Most of it goes to the United States, an
“ecological debtor” that consumes more resources than it produces.
Thinking
purely in terms of generic “resources,” everyone is better off when debtor
countries can import resources from nations with supplies to spare. There are
real and important environmental impacts associated with producing and
consuming oil, but the network’s calculations do not address them. Nor do they
reflect the decline in natural capital from extracting a nonrenewable resource.
Measuring sustainability
The
Global Footprint Network asserts that “You can’t manage what you can’t
measure,” but it may be impossible to create a single metric that can capture
all human impacts on the environment. Earth Overshoot Day highlights
unsustainable uses of natural resources, but we need scientifically robust
ecological indicators to inform environmental policy, and a broader
understanding of ecological risks.
Better
measurements of sustainability should reflect changes in our supplies of
natural capital, include estimates of uncertainty and incorporate multiple
pathways to reducing carbon footprints. The best tool for measuring human
impacts on the planet may be a dashboard of environmental indicators, not a
footprint.
This piece seems extremely important to me because it discusses the issue of climate change on a grand scale; how humans impact the world as a whole. In other words, it talks about how humans in each part of the world are overusing resources and essentially, degrading the natural capital around them. People are slowly killing the earth at a rate higher than the earth can heal itself, and each year it gets worse. This article made me think of a random analogy that somewhat (albeit simply) the idea of “overshoot day”. Let’s say there is a bakery and each day it can make a dozen cookies for each of it’s 10 customers. However, one customer demands 14 cookies one day and then 15 the next, but the bakery can only make 840 cookies a week. There comes a point where there aren’t enough cookies for each customer each week, and eventually there will come a point where the baker will fall dead from exhaustion. Each country in the world is like a single customer. It is scary to think of the carbon footprint many developed countries are leaving behind each year. Countries like France and the USA are consuming almost 3 times as much as they should for Earth to sustain itself. This means earth is running out of cookies, but also, other countries have to pay the price and quite literally either starve, or work the baker to death. Unless every country figures out a way to eat only 12 cookies a day (preferably less to let the baker catch up), then the bakery will go out of business. This article also talks about the how the measure of a carbon footprint is actually flawed, and may be undershooting the environmental impacts humans have by not including a number of externalities like the cost of producing food through croplands. In other words, the article claims that while a carbon footprint is a great indicator of environmental damage, it is a single metric, and unable to calculate all of the different aspects of environmental harm. Could the world be dying at a much faster rate then we even realize with all this data? It’s a horrifying thought and something I hope our president begins to consider right away. But he probably won’t.
ReplyDeleteI think the content of this article is especially important in today’s economy. Humans all over the globe have been abusing the earth's natural resources, so much that the earth cannot regenerate. This has been increasing since the Industrial Revolution as a result of the growth in the economy, which is an achievement since it has aided in pulling people out of poverty. However, the earth can no longer keep up with the harm that we continue to do to it. Overall, Overshoot Day is the day of the year where we reach a point that humans have “consumed more natural resources that the earth can regenerate in that year.” Honestly, it was very sad reading this post as I did not know about it before this reading. Nonetheless, it is not surprising that this is our reality. We as humans really need to do better in terms of preserving our planet.
ReplyDeleteIt is so scary to see that humanity as a whole is damaging our planet day by day. Every country mass produces without being sustainable which is destroying the planet. This all began with the Industrial Revolution and increased use of fossil fuels. The use of fossil fuels created motivation and incentives within capitalism which resulted in economic growth. This was a good thing, since it created a better standard of living but resulted in too much growth. Even though large corporations had no intentions to destroy our planet, humanity is currently dealing with the aftermath of the rapid growth from productivity, innovation, and capitalism.
ReplyDeleteThis idea of Overshoot Day is a great way to see that each country is leaving a carbon footprint that cannot be undone or regenerated. It also shows how the much more developed countries overshoot a lot earlier than others, which made me think that we are all so obsessed with our “stuff.” After reading this article it reminded me of a project created by Annie Leonard.
Leonard’s project, called “The Story of Stuff”(https://storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-stuff/), breaks down the process of how we make our products and how that affects our planet. It relates to the concept of Overshoot Day as it is basically the behind the scenes of how we got to the climate crisis in the first place. Each country and humanity as a whole needs to reevaluate our consumption behaviors and transition to a more sustainable way of living. If we could all push to overshoot like Vietnam or even Thailand, then maybe there could be more hope for a sustainable way of living.
I was quite aware of the global overshoot day but was unaware of each individual country’s. The fact that countries like the United States and France are reaching their personal overshoot days less than halfway through the year is terrifying and disgusting. It’s also crazy that it’s potentially very under calculated and how our true carbon footprint can not be measured. This is such unfortunate circumstances and makes the United States’ pull from the Paris Agreement all the more frustrating. Given the fact that France and the United States lead in consumption, the switch to more eco-friendly options would be substantial and also less costly in the future.
ReplyDeleteThis article profides great information and definately puts things such as biocapicity in perspective and even in to numbers. However a bing cause to our earth that is not mentioned in this article and in most sustainable writings is marketing. Environemntalists lack capital and in a captilism world it can be hard to argue for. i believe there are enough scientist out there to prove more and more thinmgs however i think what this world really needs is humble people wiling to market and lobby for these environemntal values. I believe in a time of social media and materalists, inspiring lobbyist and marketing to fight agaisnt the constant advertisement tellling us to buy the next product and consulatants telling us we need more money.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first learned about Earth Overshoot Day a few months ago, it entirely blew my mind. I couldn't wrap the fact around my head that humans were consuming more resources than our planet could regenerate in a year. If everyone had a lifestyle like a person in France, then we would need 2.8 Earths. The ecological footprints are a wonderful way to measure in metric the environmental impacts of human resource use in each country. The truth of the matter is that humans want more than they need. For instance, if we take a look at a celebrity’s lifestyle, a majority of their expenses are things that they don’t need. It’s obvious that the countries that economically well have a greater ecological footprint. This makes me sad because the countries that are in actual need of necessities will have been challenged to get their resources if people keep consuming more than our earth can produce. There are websites online that allows people to calculate their ecological footprint and I found this to be interesting because if people realize how much they're using, it could encourage them to cut down on resources and consume what really matters.
ReplyDelete-Vianna Konoplin
DeleteI personally was unaware of Earth Overshoot day, but I must admit I think it's an outstanding concept. While there may be some debate as to the calculation of the footprint of consumption and biocapacity, the ideas behind these calculations are more meaningful in my opinion than the numerical results. The fact of the matter is humans consume more than Earth is capable of reproducing. Because of this, it is necessary for concepts such as overusing resources to be recognized, and using something such as Earth Overshoot Day absolutely aides in that goal. The numbers don't necessarily need to be correct, as long as people around the world begin to abide by the concept of sustainability.
ReplyDeleteIt kind of astounds me how we created the foundation of our world based on a business and completely ignored our natural resources. We take for granted the world we live on and the nature that surrounds us. The way we calculate benefits in this country does not account for the damage performed on the environment, which is insane to me. This present bias that is injected into our actions as human beings is something we should be always working against. The earth is being used more than it can replenish itself which is a terrifying thought- but I feel as though most people cannot fully comprehend the weight of this issue because this has never happened before. We can say it a million times and yet it won't seem real- the earth running out of resources sounds like a sci-fi movie plot. When I start to think about problems such as this, naturally I try to brainstorm solutions. There has to be a better way to funnel this crucial information to be digestible. Big words and complex concepts not only confuse people, but cause them not see the severity. We need more people coming together and creating value out of something that does not have a market. To be able to refocus populations in order to inject change in this system would be beneficial when it comes to realizing our Overshoot Day. Time to take this seriously and begin making aware policies and take accountability for how we have ignored the continuous cycle of diminishing our resources. Recycling anything takes a long time, but also not everything can be recycled- so that waste created cannot just pile up in the environmental sink hole forever, there is a time when we will overshoot and there is no coming back. Will that create resource wars? Oil is already a horror show when it comes to America, and I'm already nervous about the notion of American going into Venezuela to help at all, since our past with help leads to colonization. This time they're going for the oil to continue to make a business out of it. Is the only way to make a market for our resources to privatize it? There are too many greedy immoral indivuals that would create an industry out of this and take advantage of it- I don't know much, but I do know we need to start making moves in order to protect our planet and our future.
ReplyDelete-Miranda Baldo
To me, the scariest part of this all including the other articles we've looked at is the fact that this system is clearly flawed. Not only is it flawed but these flaws are being ignored. The system in place now is basically an excuse for the industrial world to feel less guilt about detrimental mass money making projects being worked on by ignoring the other side of the issue that, at the end of the day, puts the same type of stress on our economy. This is truly a recipe for disaster. As we've learned, short term solutions don't allow for any type of sustainability. Sometimes, short term sacrifices have to be made in order to guarantee long term success. Ignoring this fact will only put all of us in a dangerous scenario where our standard of living will no longer be possible. There are people out there that care about these issues but without seeing direct proof of the dangers to come, many people are fine ignoring them. Before this I had not heard of an overshoot day but in this industrial world, it makes perfect sense. Sadly, people may have to be met face to face with the consequences in order to believe that changes need to be made.
ReplyDeleteEarth Overshoot Day calculated illustrative calendar date on which humanity’s resources consumption for the years exceeds earth’s capacity to regenerate those resources that year. It’s calculated by dividing the world bio capacity, which is the amount of natural resources generated by Earth that year, by the world ecological footprint, which is the humanity’s consumption of Earth’s natural resources for that year, and then multiplying by 365. The date is not the same through out years. Still, the data suggests that human demand for natural resources has become unsustainable, the earth can no longer produce the renewable resources it needs in a year. In 1961, humans consumed only about two-thirds of the earth's annual renewable resources, and most countries had an ecological surplus.Since 1970, human's demand for nature has begun to surpass the critical point of the earth's ecology. The Earth overshoot date for 1993 was October 22, and was brought forward to August 20 in 2013. As human, we can improve this situation by eating less meat, using less fuel and wasting less food, everyone can stop and eventually reverse the current situation and contribute to the extension of the earth's renewable resources. It’s important for us to do these things that can help save the earth for our next generations.
ReplyDeleteI have been aware of the global overshoot day for awhile now, but was unaware of each countries individual. Countries like the France and United States are reaching personal overshoot days less than halfway through the year is disgusting and terrifying. It’s also shocking to me that it is potentially very under calculated how our true carbon footprint can not be measured. Given that France and the United States lead in consumption, the switch to more eco-friendly options would result in a less future
ReplyDeleteI had known about the issue of the shortage of resources because of the increasing human population for some time now. I found this this post enlightening because I hadn't known about the low accuracy rate of the measurements used to calculate how much of our resources we need in order to sustain ourselves. The world depends on money and immediate relief rather than the preservation of earth and sustainability which takes a longer period of time. The fact that humans consume more natural resources than the earth can replace in a given year is quite scary and pushes me to utilize more sustainable ingredients. I want to try and stretch out the natural resources I consume over a longer period of time rather than use them u quickly and "run out" to get more. Earth is our home and we should do what we can to preserve it. I know it is difficult to live like the french but if most European countries are able to live a great life while being sustainable and eco-friendly then maybe it is not so difficult. We should also work towards building more accurate systems of determining the amount of natural resources that we consume and how we can make the switch to a sustainable lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteWith the increasing growth of the population I am afraid of space being an issue of concern. I am even seeing it in my own neighborhood. One family houses are being broken down and made into two/ three family homes. Many tall apartment buildings are being built. This is to compensate for all the people that are moving here to live. Everyone is coming here seeking a better life. As opposed to many years ago, parking spots get filled up pretty quickly. People whom live in other streets are coming to my street to park their vehicles. Families now have three or four vehicles at a time, one for mom, dad, sister, brother, and oh yeah their other brother. If I don’t come home before 8pm, it takes me a long time before I find a parking space because someone took my usual parking spot already. The point of this story is to justify why the concern for having enough natural resources is important as well. Does this planet have enough natural resources much like “parking spaces” to sustain us? There are more than 7 billion people on this planet, yet can we meet the demands of everyone? This is a tough question to answer. At the rate we are currently going at it seems as if with the increasing population there comes an increasing amount of pollution and a decreasing amount of resources. This reminds me of the Lorax. Industries are increasing the rise of environmental issues. We are abusing the soil for our planting and leaving places bare. We need to make efforts so that the earth can “regenerate” before we reach “Earth’s Overshoot Day- date when humanity’s demands on nature exceed”. I think this article does a great job of informing us that we could potentially reach Overshoot day closer than we think. The earth might not be able to be sustainable for much longer and that we could have potentially reach over capacity already. I actually believed that us humans were consuming more than the earth could produce resources just by looking at prices in the grocery stores. Food is going up in prices. Before my mom could have gone into the grocery store and $20 would be able to buy her a lot of items years ago. Now, she is spending more than usually for the same amount of people living in the household. It makes me wonder if this is what it is like to be the survival of the fittest. It seems to me that people who come from a higher income family spend money on the items. Which is why some lower class families have no choice of purchasing fast food because it’s cheaper, but unhealthy. Its sad to know that a salad costs $8.99 while you can get a burger for $5.00. This is probably why the healthy stuff are more expensive because it’s hard to obtain based off the fact that their might not be enough resources.
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