Overdraft Day 2016 is here! Humanity has become extremely wasteful. Despite numerous environmental commitments, in just eight months of 2016 we used up all the natural resources that the Earth can produce. renews within a year, reports the Global Footprint Network (GFN). Earth Overshoot Day occurs earlier every year, last year it happened on August 13, and this year it was August 8, 2016.
From August 8, 2016 further, the Earth "runs on steam". He performed on that day day of overdraft, that is the day of exceeding the Earth's resources (Earth Overshoot Day), reports the organization Global Footprint Network (GFN), which means that we have already consumed as much natural resources and ecological goods as the Earth can annually renew. With current consumption, you would need approx. 1.6 Earths, if we wanted to restore all the natural resources and goods that we will consume in 2016. Of course, this does not mean that natural resources ran out for this year, so we are burning gold reserves or we live on credit.
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If in 2015 we recorded the day of excess on August 13, we still have it in 1993 on October 21 and in 2000 on October 1. In 2008, the day was already moved to September 23, in 2014 it was August 19. This year, as mentioned, we applied for credit 11 days earlier. Environmentalists they warn that they should have at such a pace two Earths available in 2030, in order to power our lifestyle (even with the implementation of the United Nations plan to reduce carbon pollution by 30 percent by 2030), and in 2050 as many as three to support us! But not everything is so black, because this one can negative trend, which began in the 1970s with economic and population growth, we turn.
But in doing so, one should not rely on political commitments, which admittedly managed to slow down the pace of movement in the last five years one day a year (on average, the day of the exceedance occurred 3 days earlier each year), but everyone must ask themselves what they can do for the environment. A small step for an individual means a big one for humanity or Earth. Just by repeatedly giving up meat - meat production namely, it consumes an enormous amount of water and surfaces and releases a lot of carbon dioxide into the air - we do a lot, but that's why we don't affect the quality of life very much. Get started use less paper, ride your bike several times and regularly turn off household appliances and lights. These are all small steps at the individual level, but collectively they save a lot of energy.
More information:
overshootday.org