In less than 8 months, humanity exhausted Earth's budget for 2016

At this rate, we need the resources of 1.6 planets!

At this rate, we need the resources of 1.6 planets!

The 8th of August was the ‘Earth Overshoot Day’ for 2016, the new record day estimated that humanity has used up the planet’s resources for the entire year, according to the Global Footprint Network - a nonprofit research group that focuses on sustainability. It is the day when humanity’s demand on nature exceeded what Earth can regenerate in that year, meaning that for the rest of the year we will be increasing our ecological deficitby drawing down local resource stocks and accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon emissions are the fastest growing contributor to ecological overshoot, with the carbon footprint now making up 60% of humanity’s demand on nature.

The exact date of Earth Overshoot Day is determined by a simple formula. Global Footprint Network takes the amount of natural resources available, divides it by humanity’s ecological footprint (how much of the planet’s resources we use up), and then multiplies it by the days in a year. Calculating this day country by country would give very different results, as a country’s ecological footprint depends on various factors including population size, standard of living and eating habits. Since 1970, Earth Overshoot Day has been a moving date with a general tendency to come earlier each year. For the record, in 2000 it fell in late September, in 2014 on August 19th and in 2015 on August 13th.

We use up the resources of 1.6 planets and a new way of living is needed in order to change this trend. The goals set by the Paris climate agreement in December 2015 are a step forward, and there are also various other things that each of us can do in that direction such as eliminating meat consumption, decreasing our home’s energy needs, using public transportation and reducing paper waste.