Overshoot Day
Last August 22th, the Earth exhausted its natural resources destined for 2020.
By: Natalie Garcia Marketing Director Enverdeser
(Don’t forget to do your Ecological Footprint test right here)
If there is something in common that the pandemic has taught us, it is to value.
To Value that we can gather, give each other a hug, share with other people, determine the things that are truly important and realize that we buy more than what we need and waste a lot. This is something that the planet greatly resents.
Many people think that by not going out, not using cars so much, traveling by plane, etc. the planet is resting, there are those who think that even the flora and fauna are having a positive “boom” and that they are finally regenerating, but these effects are only temporary.
On the contrary, the amount of products that cannot be recycled for safety reasons and that even need to be incinerated and in other cases thrown away into the sea without greater care, the increase in plastics to protect the most basic things such as: packing just one slice of bread, bagging utensils, use disposables to eat or drink water and the amount of natural resources that have been used for human supplies, leave us with a big problem in several ways..
On August 22nd, the Overshoot day was stablished as “The Day of the Overcapacity of the Earth”
This means that in just eight months humanity has consumed more natural resources than the planet can produce in a year.
How to reduce this unsustainable consumption?
A reformulation in food consumption is necessary. Each year, a third part of food is wasted, the equivalent of 300 million tons of food waste that ends up in the garbage, according to data from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
The food system on which everyone depends causes 80% of deforestation that not only causes the loss of species and biodiversity, but an excessive demand for certain products.
We live on borrowed from now on. A loan that future generations will have to pay. Humanity consumes nature’s pantry (water, food, fuel, …) at a speed 1.75 times greater than its capacity for renewal.
De igual forma, el sistema alimentario del que depende todo el mundo provoca el 80% de la deforestación que no solo provoca la pérdida de especies y biodiversidad,sino una demanda excesiva de ciertos productos.Vivimos de prestado a partir de ahora. Un préstamo que deberán pagar las generaciones futuras. La humanidad consume la despensa de la naturaleza (agua, alimentos, combustibles,…) a una velocidad 1,75 veces superior a su capacidad de renovación.
¿What to do?
Among many alternatives, it is urgent that we all reduce our consumption and, in this way, reduce our “Ecological Footprint”. (The ecological footprint is an estimate of the rate of use of natural resources based on each lifestyle)
It is possible to define a type of lifestyle that generates a sustainable ecological footprint, meaning, that it does not exceed the carrying capacity of the Planet if it generalizes to all humanity. The estimation and analysis of the individual and collective ecological footprint, therefore, could be a powerful tool to advance a sustainable use of natural resources.
Measure your ecological footprint
Here is a creative way to measure your ecological footprint and determine in which area you should generate the most changes.
