Tuesday, 23 September 2008 00:00 | and posted in Environment
Today humanity slides into ecological debt for the year 2008. This means that September 23 marks the day when humanity has used up all the natural resources the Earth can provide us with this year according to the New Economics Foundation. From now on until the end of the year we are ‘dipping into our ecological reserves, borrowing from the future', says Dr Mathis Wakernagel, the executive director of the Global Footprint Network.
Humans are currently using up the capacity of 1.4 Earths and consumption is increasing. Last year Ecological Debt Day was October 6.
Since 1980, humanity as been increasingly ‘overshooting' nature's budget the NEF said. We are using up resources such as forests and fisheries faster than they can be regenerated and we are producing more waste, particularly carbon dioxide, than our planet can absorb.