Free Republic

Humans have used up more of Earth’s resources than it can regenerate within one year as of Aug. 1, 2018, according to the Global Footprint Network. This year's Earth Overshoot Day is the earliest ever. Last year’s Earth Overshoot Day fell on Aug. 2. The date, which was previously known as Ecological Debt Day, has occurred steadily earlier since 1971. That year, the date fell on Dec. 21. “We are using 1.7 Earths,” according to the Global Footprint Network’s website. “We use more ecological resources and services than nature can regenerate through overfishing, overharvesting forests and emitting more carbon dioxide...

After a temporary reprieve due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Earth Overshoot Day — the day humanity is projected to have used up all the planet’s biological resources regenerated in one year — has shifted forward again, this year landing on July 29. “With almost half a year remaining, we will already have used up our quota of the Earth’s biological resources for 2021,” said Susan Aitken, leader of Glasgow City Council, where world leaders will gather later this year for the COP26 climate summit in November. “If we need reminding that we’re in the grip of a climate and ecological...

As of Tuesday, the Earth's ecological budget for the year has maxed out. For the rest of the year the planet will operate on an ecological deficit. And it's only August. So claims the Global Footprint Network, which calls today "Earth Overshoot Day," its annual estimate of when human consumption exceeds the planet's ability to regenerate its resources for the year. "It's a bit of a gimmick, I admit," said the group's president Mathis Wankernagel,in a phone interview from Switzerland. "It's not that tomorrow I won't be able to eat potatoes anymore." But, he said, it's meant to make a...