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