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/
(Score: 3, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday August 14 2015, @10:07PM
Hey, I'm all about eating the rich. They are, after all, the ones who have more power to enable situations like what I described -- and all for the sake of profit.
And if you don't think welfare recipients have large numbers of offspring, you're wrong -- unless you think six offspring per couple is not a "large number."
The day of reckoning is coming, and when it does it will be too late. The human cancer will lose the battle with itself -- its own worst enemy. God will frown upon our remains with contempt and disgust. And then he will piss on those remains. He might even take a shit on them. A holy shit.
(Score: 5, Funny) by shortscreen on Saturday August 15 2015, @04:36AM
As soon as the Japanese get done perfecting sexbots, we'll start assigning one each to every welfare recipient. (And think of all the jobs created at the sexbot factory!) Next, the US military can start sending them to foreign countries in lieu of armed drones. Everybody lives happily ever after.