Earth Overshoot Day is a depressing reminder that we humans are living well beyond our means. August 8 marked the point when humanity as a whole has used up the resources needed to live sustainably for a year. The day is declared every year by Global Footprint Network, a nonprofit research group that focuses on sustainability. The first Earth Overshoot Day was in Oct. 2006. It’s been creeping up the calendar ever since, landing on Aug. 19 in 2014, and just last year, reaching Aug. 13. The earlier Earth Overshoot Day falls, the more rapidly we’ve been using the planet’s natural resources. The exact date of Earth Overshoot Day is determined by a simple formula. Global Footprint Network takes the planet’s biocapacity, or the amount of natural resources available, divides it by humanity’s ecological footprint, or how much of the planet’s resources we use up, and then multiplies it by the days in a year. Calculating this day country by country would give very different results. Some countries, like Australia and the U.S., use a lot of resources in a year. Others, like Brazil and India, use far less. Many factors contribute to a country’s ecological footprint, including population size, standard of living and eating habits. Data shows that we would only need 0.7 earths if every country used resources like India, but we would need 5.4 earths if everyone lived like Australia. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! http://qz.com/753603/as-of-today-we-have-used-up-all-the-earths-resources-for-2016/
