WE ARE consuming the Earth’s resources faster than they can be replenished, at least according to US think tank Global Footprint Network. It declared 9 October “overshoot day” – the point in each year when our ecological allowance for that year is spent.
GFN’s eco-audits began in 1961, and overshoot day has fallen ever earlier since its first occurrence, on 19 December 1987. Now it will take 15 months for the world to regenerate what we use in 2006.
“Humanity is living off its ecological credit card and can only do this by liquidating the planet’s natural resources,” says Mathis Wackernagel, GFN’s executive director. “While this can…
