Humans will spend all resource budget for 2017 by next week; will live on ‘credit’ for rest of the year: Report

Humans on Earth will spend their 2017 budget for resources like soil, clean air, and water by next week, a report has said. Hence, we will be living on ‘credit’ for rest of the year. On August 2, the Earth Overshoot Day will be observed, environmental groups WWF and Global Footprint Network have said. This is falling a day earlier than in 2016.

“By August 2, 2017, we will have used more from Nature than our planet can renew in the whole year,” the groups said in a statement.

“This means that in seven months, we emitted more carbon than the oceans and forests can absorb in a year, we caught more fish, felled more trees, harvested more, and consumed more water than the Earth was able to produce in the same period.”

In order to produce enough to meet the needs of humans at current consumption rates, the equivalent of 1.7 planets would be required.

The grim milestone is being calculated since 1986 and has arrived earlier each year. It fell on October 21 in 1993, on September 22 in 2003 and on August 13 in 2015. 

The groups said that humanity’s ecological ‘footprint’ on the planet is made up of greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal, oil and gas.

However, there was some good news. The statement said that while coming earlier every year, the advance of Earth Overshoot Day has slowed down.

The report said that humans can contribute to stopping or eventually reversing the trend by eating less meat, burning less fuel, and cut back on food waste.