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posted by janrinok on Friday August 14 2015, @09:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the living-on-borrowed-time dept.

Earth Overshoot Day is the day when—according to estimates—the total combined consumption of all human activity on Earth in a year overtakes the planet's ability to generate those resources for that year.

How is it measured ? "It's quite simple," says Dr. Mathis Wackernagel of the think tank Global Footprint Network. "We look at all the resource demands of humanity that compete for space, like food, fiber, timber, et cetera, then we look at how much area is needed to provide those services and how much productive surface is available."

Here's his bottom line metaphor. Earth Overshoot Day is like the day you spend more than your salary for a year, only you are all humans and your salary is Earth's biocapacity. Ideally, Overshoot Day would come after December 31. It wasn't too far off in 1970, when it occurred on December 23. But Overshoot Day creep has kicked in ever since. August 13 is the earliest yet—four days ahead of last year's previous record.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/08/150813-earth-overshoot-day-earlier/


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  • (Score: 1) by SlowMustang on Friday August 14 2015, @09:47PM

    by SlowMustang (4166) on Friday August 14 2015, @09:47PM (#223023)

    I have this same problem when I play RTS games where I have to gather resources.

    Sooner or later I chop down all the trees, catch all the fish, and mine everything.

  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday August 14 2015, @10:33PM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Friday August 14 2015, @10:33PM (#223036) Journal

    That's why you need to build farms and send trade units to the nearest market.

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