Good Job, Humanity: As Of Today We Are Consuming More Than Earth Can Replenish This Year
Swirls of ice off the northern coast of Japan Chris Hadfield via Twitter Cue the slow clapping. Today is Earth Overshoot Day. Happy Earth Overshoot Day! Except, well, we don't much feel like celebrating. That's because Earth Overshoot Day is the day each year when we've consumed natural resources at a rate beyond which our planet can replenish, and have produced more waste than can be reabsorbed, according to the Global Footprint Network, a think tank based in the U.S., Switzerland, and Belgium. The holiday was originally conceived of by Andrew Simms, of the U.K. think tank New Economics Foundation. This year, it falls on August 20, two days (or three, depending on the calculations) earlier than it came last year, following a relatively steady trend since 2001: falling about three days earlier each year. (Humanity first went into overshoot in 1970; that year, Earth Overshoot Day fell on December 29.) The cause...