Earth Overshoot Day 'Celebrated' Earlier This Year

Earlier this week, August 21 to be exact, was the day when human demand on nature surpassed what nature could renewably supply for the year. This is according to the U.S.-based Global Footprint Network, which marks Earth Overshoot Day each year. As of August 21, humanity had demanded an amount of ecological services equivalent to what it takes the planet 12 months to produce. The Global Footprint Network calculates nature's supply in the form of biocapacity, the amount of resources the planet regenerates each year, and compares that to human demand: the amount it takes to produce all the living resources we consume and absorb our carbon dioxide emissions.

From now until the end of the year, we will meet our ecological demand by depleting resource stocks and accumulating greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

According to the Global Footprint Network, for most of human history, humanity has been able to live off of nature's interest--consuming resources and producing carbon dioxide at a rate lower than what the planet was able to regenerate and reabsorb each year. Approximately 30 years ago, however, we crossed a critical threshold and the rate of human demand for ecological services began to outpace the rate at which nature could provide them. This gap between demand and supply--known as ecological overshoot--has grown steadily each year. It now takes one year and six months to regenerate the resources that humanity requires in one year.

Last year, Earth Overshoot Day was observed on September 25, 2009. This year, overshoot day is estimated to come more than a month earlier. This is not due to a sudden change in human demand, but rather to improvements in the calculation methodology that is used by the Global Footprint Network.

Our industry is certainly one of the largest CO2 contributors and consumers of our planet's resources. Will it be able to reduce its impact to the point where its needs are in balance with what the Earth can provide? For the moment, I don't think so given our industry's focus on growth. Some of the major chains are setting achievable long-term CO2 reduction and resource use reduction goals and that is a good thing. Unfortunately, however, we all still have a long way to go.