SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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, Insightful) by Tork on Friday August 14 2015, @10:51PM
Okay maybe I'm being a bit fanciful, but I'm just not that worried about consumerism, especially in light of my own spending habits. Besides, the nice thing about Capitalism is that it has a built in safety device that also happens to be the basis of why all this works: Supply and demand. We're not going to hit a day where, for example, no more gasoline is available. Instead it'll be harder to get, making prices rise. As those prices rise, alternatives become more economical. When equilibrium is reached, oil is replaced with dilithium crystals or whatever we end up using.
Maybe it's because I'm optimistic or naive or maybe even a little bit of both, but I'm not worried about it.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday August 14 2015, @11:18PM
With tech as a service you would loose choice and quality over time.
Also there are too many people getting (not earning) money by moving money and paper around rather than by contributing to society.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by Tork on Friday August 14 2015, @11:25PM
With tech as a service you would loose choice and quality over time.
Why?
Also there are too many people getting (not earning) money by moving money and paper around rather than by contributing to society.
What does an arbitrary value judgment on contributions to society have to with this conversation?
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday August 14 2015, @11:48PM
Why? Because profit. Once a subscription service gets your membership it will tend to gradually reduce services and choices. Look at cable TV for example. When it was new it was great; lots of good quality content and no commercials.
When you're building your own computer, or even buying a prebuilt, they need to earn your money with every purchase. With a subscription they just have to not be bad enough to make you want to switch.
"What does an arbitrary value judgment on contributions to society have to with this conversation?"
"That's good in the sense that the money moving around means everybody's doing work that is earning them money."
Some people are getting money without working.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by Tork on Saturday August 15 2015, @12:05AM
Look at cable TV for example. When it was new it was great; lots of good quality content and no commercials.
Yes, there were no commercials, no I don't agree that content is worse today. In the last several decades we went to shows designed with a built in reset-button at the end of every episodes to compelling TV whose stories span entire seasons. Although there is a shit-ton of crap out there (for some reason we don't remember that all eras of television have had tons of crap) we've got plenty more interesting things to watch... all on DVRs instead of being a slave to airtime. In fact, re-watchability in modern TV is at an all-time high! It's fun to pick on TV since we can pretend we don't watch it in order to appear smarter than we really are, at the end of the day we all wish FireFly would come back. It's not a very good example.
Some people are getting money without working.
Who are you talking about?
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Saturday August 15 2015, @01:50AM
I'm talking about the parasites and freeloaders who get rich on other people's labor. Many investors, CEO's, and politicians offer little if anything in exchange for their profits. They may work hard, but they're working on ways to get something for nothing rather than on making value to be traded fairly.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Saturday August 15 2015, @02:35AM
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings