Humanity uses more resources than the world can renew, meaning that our current way of life is not sustainable, and that at this rate the world will one day just run out of resources.
Global Footprint Network, an international sustainability think tank, has worked out that in 2013 we have officially passed the point where our consumption exceeds the planets ability to produce. The 20th of August has been designated 'Earth Overshoot Day', signifying, as businessGreen put it, that on Tuesday "the planet's ecological budget moves into the red."
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The human race is currently using such a large amount of resources that Global Footprint Network have estimated that it would take just over 1.5 Earths to actually renew the consumed resources, and they expect this to increase to two full Earths before 2020.
Their research showed that if everyone in the world were to consume as much as the average citizen of the United States, we would need four Earths to replenish resources. That jumps to six and a half Earths if we all consumed at the same rate as the people of Qatar.
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In fact more than 80% of the world's population live in countries whose consumption exceeds their own ecosystems ability to provide. The Swiss use the same amount of resources as produced by four Switzerlands, and it would take four Italys to keep the Italians happy.
Global Footprint Network stated that "as our level of consumption, or 'spending', grows, the interest we are paying on this mounting ecological debt - shrinking forests, biodiversity loss, fisheries collapse, food shortages, degraded land productivity and the build-up of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and oceans - not only burdens the environment but also undermines our economies.
Climate change - a result of greenhouse gases being emitted faster than they can be absorbed by forests and oceans - is the most widespread impact of ecological overspending."
By. Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com
Charles is a writer for Oilprice.com More
Comments
Henry George provided the answers to these issues over 100 years ago in his landmark book Progress and Poverty. It should be required reading everywhere, especially in so-called schools of economics.