The Global Footprint Network performs the public service of calculating how rapidly we are devouring the Earth’s natural resources. The Network is a charitable not-for-profit independent think tank headquartered in Oakland, California. It brings together over 70 partner organizations with the goal of developing and promoting tools for advancing sustainability.
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Views from the Beltline: Whoops! We overshot … again
According to the Global Footprint Network, August 22nd was Earth Overshoot Day. The day “marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year.” In other words, it represents a budget for the planet’s ecological resources. Unfortunately,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Big Day Tomorrow – It’s Earth Overshoot Day – August 13, 2015.
Tomorrow is Earth Overshoot Day, the date on which mankind has gobbled up a full year’s worth of renewable resources – biomass, water and such. The date falls a couple of days earlier every year as we increase our consumption levels beyond our planet’s carrying capacity. Each year brings us
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Living Planet Report 2014 – Biodiversity Body Blow
Forty years and counting. That’s how long mankind has been outpacing nature’s replenishment rate of essential natural resources – water, biomass, the atmosphere. For 40-years we’ve been running ecological deficits at a steadily increasing rate. Not only are we consuming more than the Earth can provide, our shortfall is
Continue readingThe global economy—a case of bad engineering
For a number of years I toiled in the oil industry as an engineer, and not infrequently lessons I learned from my engineering experience return to inform me in other contexts. Recently I have been thinking of the global economy in such terms, and it fails miserably to pass the
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