Earth dips into the red

Beginning on October 9 and continuing to the end of the year, the world will be living beyond its ecological means according to researchers who have created the concept of an 'ecological footprint'. They believe it shows that, from that day, humans will have already consumed the total amount of new resources nature will produce this year. Each year the Global Footprint Network calculates humanity's demand on cropland, pasture, forests and fisheries and compares it with the ability of these ecosystems to generate resources and absorb wastes. Such Ecological Footprint accounting can be used to determine the exact date humans begin running an annual ecological deficit. Designated World Overshoot Day, the researchers estimated demand began outstripping supply on October 9. The causes of Overshoot are simple but significant. In any given year if trees are cut down faster than they can grow back, then forests become smaller than before. If more fish are caught each year than spawn, then there will be fewer fish. The consequences of humans' accumulating ecological debt also include " global climate change, species extinctions, insecure energy supplies, water News focus According to one index, humans have already consumed a year's worth of the world's renewable resources by the beginning of last month. Nigel Williams reports on the growth in borrowed time. Earth dips into the red shortages and crop failures " , the researchers say. The first calculation of Overshoot Day was in 1987, when the date was December 19. Today, with Overshoot Day on October 9, the global Ecological Footprint is almost 30 per cent larger than the planet's biocapacity. In other words, it now takes more than one year and three months for the Earth to replenish what we use in 12 months, they calculate. Keeping track of the compound effect of humanity's consumption of natural resources and generation of waste is one key to achieving sustainability, the researchers argue. As long as people do not know how much of nature's capacity humans use or how resource use compares with existing stocks, Under pressure: Humans are creating an increasingly large ecological footprint on the planet's natural resources.