# World 'has used up 2013 resources'



## Harpo (Aug 20, 2013)

Yahoo! News UK & Ireland - Latest World News & UK News Headlines

Humans have used up the natural resources the Earth can  provide for the year and are now in "overdraft", campaigners have  warned.
 The world has reached "earth overshoot day", the point in the year  that humans have exhausted supplies such as land, trees and fish and  outstripped the planet's annual capacity to absorb waste products  including carbon dioxide.
 For the rest of the year, the world is in ecological debt, with fish  stocks and forests being depleted, land degraded and carbon dioxide  building up in the atmosphere, the Global Footprint Network said.
Earth overshoot day is calculated by comparing the demands made by  humans on global resources - our "ecological footprint" - with the  planet's ability to replenish resources and absorb waste.
 This year, in less than nine months we have used as much of nature as  the Earth can regenerate in a year. Earth overshoot day has fallen a  couple of days earlier than it did last year.
 The Global Footprint Network said that in 1961, humanity only used  around two-thirds of the available natural resources on Earth, but by  the 1970s increased carbon emissions and consumption began to outstrip  what the planet could provide.
 Humans now need the equivalent of 1.5 planets to sustain us, and by  mid century it will have risen to two planets, the campaigners said.
China has the biggest total ecological footprint, because of its  large population, but other countries have much higher demands on  resources per person. If everyone were to live like US residents we  would need four planets to supply demand.
 Alessandro Galli, Global Footprint Network regional director, said:  "Everyday life in many Mediterranean countries is showing us what it  means to live beyond financial limits. 
 "Ecological and financial deficits are two sides of the same coin.  Over the long run, nations cannot deal with one deficit without  addressing the other."


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## mosaix (Aug 21, 2013)

> This year, in less than nine months we have used as much of nature as  the Earth can regenerate in a year.



Scary stuff, Harpo.


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## Lady of Winterfell (Aug 22, 2013)

This makes me sad.  I saw this the other day, and didn't want to believe it.


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## K. Riehl (Dec 7, 2013)

And yet we have discovered enormous reserves of Shale Gas which will be good for over 200 years. We have developed new generation nuclear plants that have greatly reduced waste and increased efficiency in power generation. We have improved gene replacement technology which has a chance to revolutionize healthcare. We have developed waste technology that turns a foot of garbage into an inch of ash which can serve as fertilizer. We have had record crops of Wheat, Rice, Corn and other foodstuffs. At the turn of the last century farmers got around 6 bushels of wheat per acre and now they produce around 30 per acre. We have developed golden rice to combat blindness in poor children, too bad Greenpeace destroyed the pilot program. Technology constantly improves the livelihood of humanity and is often disregarded by the people who put out such "warnings"

I wish we would take the one billion dollars a day combating climate change and instead spend it on developing infrastructure and power generation for poor countries. What benefit are getting from the current overspending on CO2 reduction? I can't think of even one. Less burning of wood leads to less deforestation which leads to a better life for the local population and less destruction of resources. When the quality of life goes up the population goes down. Cheap, available energy is the key answer to most of the problems listed in the article.


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