GRAIN — Food and climate change: The forgotten link
GRAIN — Food and climate change: The forgotten link
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In 10 months, humanity has exhausted nature’s budget for the year
Similarly to the way a bank statement tracks income against expenditures, Global Footprint Network’s methodology tracks human demand on nature – from filtering CO2 to producing the raw materials for food – against nature’s capacity to regenerate those resources and absorb the waste. Our research shows that in approximately nine months, we have demanded a level of services from nature equivalent to what the planet can provide for all of 2012. We maintain this deficit by depleting stocks of things like fish and trees, and by accumulating waste such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the ocean. Earth Overshoot Day (based on a concept devised by UK-based new economics foundation ), helps conceptualize the degree to which we are over-budget in our use of nature. While meant as an estimate more than an exact date, Earth Overshoot Day helps conceptualize the size of the gap between a sustainable level of ecological demand and how much is currently required to support hu