« Augering In | Main | North Korean Test A Dud? »

October 10, 2006

In The Red

Environment

Humanity is using up the world's ecological resources faster than Nature can replenish them. One way to dramatize that fact is to calculate the date each year when humanity has used up resources that would take a full year to replenish. This year, that date was yesterday. For the remainder of this year, we'll be stealing from our children. Guardian:

Humanity slides into the red [Monday] and begins racking up an ecological overdraft driven by unsustainable exploitation of the world's resources, according to a report by the sustainable development organisation Global Footprint Network.

In little more than nine months, humans have used up all that nature can replenish in one year, and for the rest of 2006 are destined to eat into the planet's ecological capital, the study claims.

The network calculated the day the global economy started to operate with an ecological deficit by comparing world demand for resources with the rate at which ecosystems can replenish them. The study draws on surveys from bodies such as the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation.

According to GFN, humanity first went into global ecological debt in 1987, when the year's resources were spent by December 19. Since then, the date has leapt forward year by year to November 21 by 1995 and October 11 last year. The trend reveals the alarming effect of unsustainable lifestyles which are increasingly using up world reserves. "Humanity is living off its ecological credit card," said Mathis Wackernagel at GFN.

The worst offenders are in developed countries: for North Americans the "ecological footprint" - the land and water a person needs to sustain their lifestyle - is 9.6 hectares (23.7 acres). For the typical African it is 1.4 hectares.

If every country lived frugally, only half the planet's resources would be needed to meet demand. But if the world adopted a US lifestyle, four extra planets would be needed. [Emphasis added]

And then, of course, there are the non-renewable resources that Nature will never replenish.

Posted by Jonathan at October 10, 2006 12:37 PM  

Comments

> Humanity slides into the red [Monday] and begins
> racking up an ecological overdraft driven by
> unsustainable exploitation of the world's
> resources

I strongly doubt that a calculation as complex as the expiration of global resources can be done to within a day's accuracy. Or even a week. A month, perhaps. But specifying the exact day we run out resources is pure baloney.

Posted by: David at October 10, 2006 02:03 PM