Citizens across the world are faced with multitude of serious concerns that range from drought to flooding, pollution and uncontrollable waster generation.
The resultant effects are nothing short of startling and our natural resources are being over consumed at a pace that beats the time needed for our planet to renew and continue to provide for us.
Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity have used more from nature than our planet can renew in the entire year.
According to Global Footprint Network, an international research organization, Earth Overshoot Day falls on August 1st this year – marking the point at which consumption exceeds the capacity of nature to regenerate.
The study reveals we have consumed a year’s worth of carbon, food, water, fibre, land and timber in a record 212 days.
Earth Overshoot Day has moved from September in 1997 to August 1st this year, the earliest date since the world first went into overshoot in the early 1970s.
The CEO and co-founder of Global Footprint Network, Mathis Wackernagel however believes that concentrated effort must be made to #MoveTheDate.
“Our current economies are running a Ponzi scheme with our planet. We are borrowing the Earth’s future resources to operate our economies in the present. Like any Ponzi scheme, this works for some time. But as nations, companies, or households dig themselves deeper and deeper into debt, they eventually fall apart.”
“It’s time to end this ecological Ponzi scheme by design, not by disaster. It’s time to #MoveTheDate and reverse the trend. This is critical if humanity is to thrive,” Wackernagel added.
Effects: deforestation, fresh-water scarcity, soil erosion, biodiversity loss and the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, climate change, severe droughts, wildfires and hurricanes.
“If we moved back Earth Overshoot Day by 5 days every year, we would return to using the resources of less than one planet by 2050,” mentioned Wackernagel in a press release.
Sharing his concern, Colonel (Retd) Shashikant Dalvi, a city-based Environmentalist said, “It is sad that humanity is devouring our planet’s resources in increasingly destructive volumes.
We have consumed a year’s worth of carbon and other resources in just 212 days. ”He further shares some solutions to handle the manmade crisis.
“We must take efforts to partially reverse the situation. Focus on Water, Tree cover, Carbon foot print must be improved. Today, we are doing exactly the opposite. and it is time the government focusses their attention to this.” added Dalvi.
Madhav Patil, a social worker who has been working towards climate change for a year through his NGO, believes that it is imminent that we include the younger generation with respect to the conservation of our resources.
“They are the future who need to save the environment for themselves. Climate change is a reality and global warming is proof of this.
However much global leaders may deny this fact, people are already suffering the backlash and it is time we seriously work on this.”
“It is much like a slow death for us and the Earth as a whole,” opines Shree Meghani, an entrepreneur. “We are breathing polluted air, increasing the burden on resources with population growth. Additionally, we are all buying much more than we actually need, leading to wastage.
While rapid change cannot be expected, a lifestyle modification with increased consciousness is the need of the hour.” she adds.
Reach her at loveleen@pune365.com or tweet @KaurKaur18
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