As of August 13, humanity has used up all of the resources Earth is able to produce in one calendar year, and has produced more waste than Earth can absorb in that time, according to an organization that analyzed thousands of data points to come to that conclusion.
It’s a striking figure: If Earth’s resources—farmland, fresh water, waste and carbon absorption—were money in a bank account, it would mean we’ve overdrawn that account by a lot. The budget that should have lasted us for 365 days has only lasted 225 this year, according to California think tank Global Footprint Network, which has been calculating “ecological overshoot” for more than a decade. In short, we’re very in the red.
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