- Earth is running out of natural resources.
We are running out of resources.
And researchers track this.
Every year they calculate the date
in which we will use up all the resources
the planet is capable of naturally renewing
over the entire year.
That day is referred to as Earth Overshoot Day.
And this year it falls on July 29th.
That means that after 210 days into 2021,
we'll be living on credit or digging into our savings
to live and survive on this planet.
Sounds grim?
Well, it kind of is.
But to further explain the calculations
and importance of Earth Overshoot Day,
along with what we can do about it,
I spoke to Laurel Hanscom,
CEO of the Global Footprint Network.
- We were thinking about this
in terms of your rent, for example.
If we were making a certain amount of money
and then paying a certain amount of rent every month,
we ran out of our rent money this year on July 29th.
- Earth Overshoot Day
was created by the Global Footprint Network
to help us reduce our pressure on the planet,
and it's determined by measuring biocapacity.
That's the biological capacity of the planet
to regenerate natural resources and absorb waste materials.
A great yet super depressing example of this
is how parts of the Amazon Rainforest
are now emitting more carbon into the atmosphere
than they are sequestering.
The Global Footprint Network then takes a biocapacity number
and divides it by the humankind's ecological footprint.
Then multiplies that number by 365
to determine Earth's Overshoot Day.
Now, I know it all sounds very technical,
and don't worry, I'm not asking you to do math.
You can actually visit the Global Footprint Network website
to see the exact breakdown.
To better understand biocapacity,
ecological footprint, and solutions,
it helps to think about it in these five pillars.
- The first is planet.
How well we're taking care of our planet,
for other species, and biocapacity, and biodiversity.
Second is energy.
Where does our energy come from.
Is it coming from clean sources or dirty sources.
Third is cities.
How our cities are made
and the infrastructure and policies that are pushed through
are hugely important in determining how efficient we are
in using resources.
The fourth is food.
Where we get our food, how we eat it,
how much of it is consumed,
the agricultural processes we use,
including regenerative agriculture, all contribute to it.
And finally, how many of us there are on the planet.
The more people we are on the planet,
the less resources there are for each of us.
- The Global Footprint Network
has recorded this day since the 1960s.
But according to its calculations,
earth has been in overshoot since the early '70s.
Back in 1970, Earth's Overshoot Day was on December 30th.
Since then, the date has moved up progressively,
now landing in July.
That's a little over halfway through the year.
Last year, because of all the lockdowns,
the day landed on August 22nd.
So it moved back a month, which is good.
But like Laurel says,
do we want solutions to come from disaster or design?
- So, not an ideal situation for moving back the date.
In fact, it was based out of tragedy and disaster
rather than design and ingenuity.
What we really wanna see is
being able to move the date of Earth Overshoot Day
to December 31st and beyond.
But because we decided to,
not because we have been forced to
through disasters like pandemics
or other results of global warming climate change,
desertification, acidification, et cetera.
- It's important to note that each country
also has its own overshoot day,
which is a overshoot date in the entire global population
consumed in the same way as the profiled country.
The United States had its overshoot day back on March 14.
So that's how bad we're doing.
Indonesia, on the other hand,
their overshoot day is December 18th.
The goal for Global Footprint Network
is to move the date to December 31st.
Meaning we go a full year
without exhausting our natural resources.
Although it seems like a massive undertaking,
they are trying to spread awareness and hope
by educating people and also using the #MovetheDate
on social media.
It's clear that governments and corporations
have a lot of change to enact within their own businesses.
Things like implementing better policy
around protecting land, using clean technology,
and supporting sustainability
within our own food supply chains.
However, there are still things
that you can do as an individual.
- But some of the biggest ones are about making changes,
not just in your household, but in your community,
and asking more of our decision-makers.
Whether those are decision-makers that are,
you know, at your company, at your city level,
at the state level,
and really pressuring them to start changing policy
in a way that supports thriving
within the means of our planet.
- At the end of the day,
moving the date is something that affects us all.
- Ultimately at the end of the day,
sustainability is a social justice issue.
If we're not thinking about how we're going to feed
and clothe and power, you know, humanity,
then we are reinforcing the exploitation of our land
and of our people.
And so the importance of this comes down to
not just making decisions at every level,
but to caring for our fellow human beings.
(intense music)