Humanity Consumes More Renewable Resources Than What is Available: One Year Supply Gone

The global environment is being harmed by human activity. According to experts, the global economy has expanded since the Industrial Revolution. Overall, growing earnings have lifted millions of people out of poverty, making this a success story. However, population increase and rising natural resource use have driven it.

According to the International Research Organization Global Footprint Network, humankind used more natural resources in 2021 than the planet could recover a year by July 29 causing depletion in resources.

(Photo : Photo by Karsten Würth on Unsplash)

When the demand for the planet's renewable resources exceeded their ability to replenish, this is known as Earth Overshoot Day. Earth Overshoot Day is a fascinating concept that has increased awareness of human activities' rising influence on the planet's bodies, soils, and air quality.

Meanwhile, one environmental expert told the Star Canada that usage of these resources is increasing at a "disproportionate" rate.

This amounts to a tax on the earth's resources that cannot be replenished in a year's time. To maintain the current global human activity levels, we would require 1.7 earths.

Canadian Consumption of Renewable Resources

Earth Overshoot Day (March 14) would arrive sooner if everyone on the planet lived like Canadians, barely two and a half months into the year, according to the Global Footprint Network. Both the United States and Kuwait have the same date.

According to Eric Miller, Director of York University's Ecological Footprint Initiative, a significant percentage of the earth's surface is needed to "sequester," or eliminate the emissions people emit each year. Reaching net-zero emissions is the fundamental goal of the Paris Agreement, requires equal "soaking up" of greenhouse gas emissions by land and ocean.

Canada consumes a "disproportionate" amount of the planet's biocapacity, which refers to the planet's ability to regenerate biological resources and absorb waste generated by people. Despite its tiny population, Canada has a high per capital consumption.

"Any efforts that we make to conserve is very impactful for the rest of the world," Miller said.

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The Norm is Changing: Climate Change Consequences

Climate change is one symptom of overusing the earth's biological resources, but so are deforestation, freshwater shortage, and biodiversity loss, according to Mathis Wackernagel, creator, and president of Global Footprint Network.

"We pay for the present by depleting the future," he explained, comparing the resource pressure to a pyramid scheme. While early expenditures are appropriate, the consequences will catch up, and resources will be exhausted, according to Wackernagel.

According to previous data from the Global Footprint Network, the date when humankind has exhausted its resources has advanced further up the calendar since the early 1970s, when humanity first fell into overshoot. In 1971, that day was Dec. 20 nevertheless, just 15 years later, on Oct. 30, global overshoot day occurred about two months earlier, on Oct. 30.

The network advises that since data is always changing and scientific findings are being discovered, it is impossible to compare any new date to the previous one. However, the fact that the date advances up the calendar each year is significant: if current patterns continue, overshoot will shift farther up the calendar, indicating that humans are significantly overusing existing resources. On the plus side, the speed with which the date has progressed has slowed.

Arguments that some nations create more emissions than others should not be used as a justification for not acting, according to Wackernagel. "The less others do, the more risk you have. (That means) you have to prepare yourself for a future that has never been more predictable than what we have right now."

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