In 2010, it has taken humanity less than nine months to exhaust its available ecological budget for the year, according to data from Global Footprint Network, in which SERI is one of the partner organisations.

Global Footprint Network calculates nature’s supply in the form of biocapacity, the amount of resources the planet regenerates each year, and compares that to human demand: the amount it takes to produce all the living resources we consume and absorb our carbon dioxide emissions, the so-called “Ecological Footprint”. Its data reveal that, as of August 21, humanity will have demanded all the ecological services – from filtering CO₂ to producing the raw materials for food – that nature can provide this year.

From now until the end of the year, we will meet our ecological demand by depleting resource stocks and accumulating greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

“If you spent your entire annual income in nine months, you would probably be extremely concerned,” said Global Footprint Network President Mathis Wackernagel. “The situation is no less dire when it comes to our ecological budget. Climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, water and food shortages — these are all clear signs that we can no longer finance our consumption on credit. Nature is foreclosing.”

Learn more about the Earth Overshoot Day 2010: www.footprintnetwork.org
SERI is also member of the Austrian Footprint Platform: www.footprint.at