Ecological Overshoot
Ecological Overshoot
Feb 29
I have always heard it called Earth’s Carrying Capacity…that is how long and how much can this planet of ours provide the life sustaining resources for 7billion + of us. The Global Footprint Network is a non-profit organization that is helping to educate all of us on sustainability and the fact that Earth can’t support us all. I guess that is the definition of un-sustainability right there.
They call it Ecological Overshoot. The language is not as nice as carrying capacity. In any time of sport we never want to overshoot – we don’t want to overshoot targets or when we drive, overshoot our destination. But, since the 1970’s this concept of Ecological Overshoot is a reality.
They calculate Earth Overshoot Day. Every year, the Global Footprint Network determines on what day we “run out”. Like our national debts (plural since we are talking about the global issues) we technically run out of the what it took to support all of us that year and start borrowing against our children’s and our grandchildren’s future. It’s not in December, or even November—that would be less scary. Its actually somewhere in the middle of August and it keeps creeping towards January.
That’s where we can make a difference. We need to take action in each of our lives to move the date backwards, towards December. Our consequences have impacts. We can make decisions that can reverse this trend, or optimistically restore our overshoot trajectories. What will your correction be?
I was hoping prehaps you could help me get some answers to these questions? Report on How long until earth’s resources can no longer supply the human race? When do we or have we already started to feel a pinch in the supply chain? Several fact must be studied and questions would have to be answered in order to answer this question.A list of a few questions and best answers gleaned from internet sources;1) How many earths does it take to supply (Humans) the USA? 2) How many Earths does it take to supply (Humans) the whole world currently? 3) Current Human population? 4) Human population growth curve? 5) Human population growth curve as it relates to how many Earths it takes to supply the earth now and it growth curve? (China and others want to be like the USA, yet the USA is the heaviest consumer on the planet these facts must be factored into this equation)6) Formula to figure out How long we have until we can no longer support current or future human population? 7) When do we or have we already started to feel a pinch in the supply chain? *** This is not the correct formula, need to develop one; Based on current human population + Plus # number of earths currently used to suply us now + growth rate of population (Demand) and Earth supply growth curve = equals time left.
Thanks for your questions. There are several organizations that are supporting the idea of our Earth’s carrying capacity. If you do a search on the term, I think you will be able to find the answers to your well thought out questions. As for the supply chain, most experts and some economists are stating that we have already begun to feel the pinch, or too much demand with too little supply. I have heard numbers such as it now takes about 1.3-1.5 planets to support our current demand….there is an inherent problem with that equation.