Today, October 6th, the world has used up all the natural resources the Earth can produce to sustain us for the year. This means that, until January 1, 2008, we are spending resources from our future and the future of our children:
Global Footprint Network today revealed October 6 is Ecological Debt day – the day when humanity has consumed all the resources the planet will produce this year. Data from Global Footprint Network and UK-based partner NEF (the new economics foundation) shows that starting in the mid 1980s humanity’s Ecological Footprint has been bigger than what the planet can supply, and we have been adding more to our ecological debt each year. … Today, with Ecological Dept day falling on October 6th, our overshoot is 30 percent.
– from the Global Footprint Network
Of course, this debt is not distributed equally. Some of us are consuming much more than our fair share of the Earth’s resources. How many Earths it would take to sustain everyone on the planet living at your quality of life?