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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, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 14 2015, @10:01PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 14 2015, @10:01PM (#223029)

    What do you do in a prisoner's dilemma with seven billion players when all players but a tiny portion of privileged white, affluent westerners have decided to take everything they can? Take everything you can yourself. Nearly everyone else has already defected.

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  • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday August 14 2015, @11:11PM

    by mhajicek (51) on Friday August 14 2015, @11:11PM (#223055)

    How do you think they got so affluent?

    --
    The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday August 14 2015, @11:42PM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 14 2015, @11:42PM (#223066) Journal
      Cooperative behavior.
      • (Score: 3, Funny) by mhajicek on Friday August 14 2015, @11:50PM

        by mhajicek (51) on Friday August 14 2015, @11:50PM (#223069)

        Yeah, I've been there. You cooperate with them and they profit.

        --
        The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday August 15 2015, @12:27AM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday August 15 2015, @12:27AM (#223081) Journal
          You are implying you don't benefit. But despite the entirely idiotic claims to the contrary, developed world societies required a lot of cooperation to get where they are and you have benefited from that, even if you aren't in a developed world country. Access to the internet being one obvious benefit.
          • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 15 2015, @03:27AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 15 2015, @03:27AM (#223128)

            Yeah the developing world loves to talk shit while they use our fertilizers, seeds, vaccines, import our technology, have benefit of our scientists/specialists consulting on their projects, and accept our aid hand over fist. Hey wiseasses, maybe if we didn't send so much shit to you we wouldn't have to produce as much.... Maybe if we stop giving you drugs and vaccines a lot of you will just fuckin die off so no need to worry about you becoming affluent.

            • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday August 15 2015, @01:26PM

              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday August 15 2015, @01:26PM (#223253) Journal

              Yeah the developing world loves to talk shit while they use our fertilizers, seeds, vaccines, import our technology, have benefit of our scientists/specialists consulting on their projects, and accept our aid hand over fist. Hey wiseasses, maybe if we didn't send so much shit to you we wouldn't have to produce as much.... Maybe if we stop giving you drugs and vaccines a lot of you will just fuckin die off so no need to worry about you becoming affluent.

              Call our bluff, if you don't like being part of the civilized world.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 15 2015, @01:44AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 15 2015, @01:44AM (#223102)

      I was trying for a non-derogatory version of what others would call hippies, treehuggers, smug fart sniffers (as per southpark). In no way does it matter how they managed to enter their position. They are the exclusionary group that have the opportunity to cooperate on global resources because of how many they already have and actually do take advantage of that opportunity.