Dette écologique : l'humanité vit à crédit sur terre à partir du 13 août 2015

Description

Nous avons épuisé l'ensemble des ressources renouvelables sur un an depuis aujourd'hui.
Cette date butoir intervient de plus en plus tôt.

Sujets

• Earth
• Eco
• Énergie renouvelable
• Énergie
• Terre

Informations

• Publié par: Fil_actu
• Publié le: 13 août 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 7
• Langue: English

Extrait

Earth Overshoot Day

In less than 8 Months, Humanity exhausts Earth's budget for the year Earth Overshoot Day 2015 lands on August 13. Please see the new website for Earth Overshoot Day atwww.overshootday.org.

Below is information from Earth Overshoot Day 2014: August 19 is Earth Overshoot Day 2014, marking the date when humanity has exhausted nature’s budget for the year. For the rest of the year, we will maintain our ecological deficit by drawing down local resource stocks and accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We will be operating in overshoot.

Just as a bank statement tracks income against expenditures, Global Footprint Network measures

humanity’s demand for and supply of natural resources and ecological services. And the data is sobering.

Global Footprint Network estimates that approximately every eight months, we demand more renewable

resources and C02 sequestration than what the planet can provide for an entire year.

Earth Overshoot Day is the annual marker of when

we begin living beyond our means in a given year.

While only a rough estimate of time and resource

trends, Earth Overshoot Day is as close as science

can be to measuring the gap between our demand

for ecological resources and services, and how much

the planet can provide.

The Cost of Ecological Overspending

Throughout most of history, humanity has used

nature’s resources to build cities and roads, to

provide food and create products, and to absorb our

carbon dioxide at a rate that was well within Earth’s

budget. But in the mid-1970s, we crossed a critical

threshold: Human consumption began outstripping

what the planet could reproduce.

According to Global Footprint Network’s calculations,

our demand for renewable ecological resources and the services they provide is now equivalent to that of more than 1.5 Earths. The data shows us on track to require the resources of two planets well before mid- century.

The fact that we are using, or “spending,” our natural capital faster than it can replenish is similar to having expenditures that continuously exceed income. In planetary terms, the costs of our ecological overspending are becoming more evident by the day. Climate change—a result of greenhouse gases being emitted faster than they can be absorbed by forests and oceans—is the most obvious and arguably pressing result. But there are others—shrinking forests, species loss, fisheries collapse, higher commodity prices and civil unrest, to name a few. The environmental and economic crises we are experiencing are symptoms of looming catastrophe. Humanity is simply using more than what the planet can provide.

Methodology and Projections

Earth Overshoot Day is an estimate, not an exact date. It’s not possible to determine with 100 percent

accuracy the day we bust our ecological budget. Adjustments of the date that we go into overshoot are

due to revised calculations, not ecological advances on the part of humanity.

As Global Footprint Network methodology changes, projections will continue to shift. But every scientific

model used to account for human demand and nature’s supply shows a consistent trend: We are well

over budget, and that debt is compounding. It is an ecological debt, and the interest we are paying on

that mounting debt—food shortages, soil erosion, and the build-up of CO₂ in our atmosphere—comes

with devastating human and monetary costs.