When consumption's in the red, we’re in trouble
Toronto Star / Peter Gorrie / 28 May 2010
The Earth has a limited amount of the resources humans need to survive. The important ones — fish, forests, agricultural land, water and air — can replenish or cleanse themselves.
But like taking more from a bank account than we deposit, since 1986 we’ve been over-drawing these resources — cutting too many trees; over-fishing — and creating more carbon dioxide and other wastes than the planet can absorb.
Despite pollution controls and improved energy efficiency, over the past quarter-century Overshoot Day has advanced on average 3.5 days annually. While this year’s date hasn’t been established yet, it’s expected to follow the trend.
Governments and industries don’t include ecological debt in their financial statements: It’s considered external to their operations. If it were counted, the costs of goods and services would soar.
The debt has developed at astonishing speed. Fifty years ago, Earth’s population consumed only half the planet’s potential resources and dumped just half the waste nature could handle. Now, we use at least 1.4 times what’s available. The Network predicts that even with projected efficiency gains, we’ll be taking double by the early 2030s and “reaching this level of ecological deficit spending may be physically impossible.”
