Not all countries demand more than their ecosystems can provide, but even the reserves of such “ecological creditors” like Brazil, Indonesia and Sweden are shrinking over time. We can no longer sustain a widening budget gap between what nature is able to provide and how much our infrastructure, economies and lifestyles require.
It is possible to turn the tide. Ecological debtors have an incentive to reduce their resource dependence, while creditors have the economic, political and strategic motive for preserving their ecological capital. Global Footprint Network and its network of partners are working with organizations, governments and financial institutions around the globe to make decisions aligned with ecological reality. Rather than liquidating resources, it is wiser to treat them as an ongoing source of wealth.
To learn more about Earth Overshoot Day and how it is calculated, visit:
http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/earth_overshoot_day/
To calculate your own personal Ecological Footprint, and learn what you can do to reduce it, visit:
http://www.footprintnetwork.org/calculator
Source: Global Footprint Network.
About Global Footprint Network
Global Footprint Network is an international sustainability think tank working to make ecological limits central to decision-making by advancing the Ecological Footprint, a resource management tool that measures how much nature we have, how much we use, and who uses what.
Andrew Simms of the UK think tank new economics foundation (nef) originally conceived the concept of Earth Overshoot Day.
