The pandemic has slowed human consumption of Earth's resources — for now
Earth Overshoot Day: Measuring our consumption of natural resources
Each year, the Global Footprint Network, an international non-profit organization that aims to draw attention to sustainability, releases an estimate on the day when humanity's demand for ecological resources surpasses what the planet can regenerate in that year.
The calculations include things like carbon production, cropland and forests, among other types of land use.
Called Earth Overshoot Day, it has fallen earlier and earlier based on historical data going back to 1970. But this year, there was a bit of good news: the date moved ahead by three weeks, from July 29 (in 2019) to Aug. 22, owing to a 9.3 per cent reduction in the world's ecological footprint.
By this calculation, we are living as though we had the resources of 1.6 Earths.
To take a more local perspective, if everyone consumed resources at the rate of Canada, Earth Overshoot Day this year would be March 18. (Put another way, we would need 4.75 Earths in a year.) As a comparison, with a country like Mexico, Earth Overshoot Day would occur on Aug. 17.
According to the Global Footprint Network, Canada's large ecological impact is because of our high land use, fuel consumption and production, as well as how much we import and export.
While the news for 2020 is more positive, the Global Footprint Network warns that it was largely because of the pandemic, which resulted in shutdowns around the world.
"Yes, we reduced our demand, but it is reduced by disaster, not by design," said Mathis Wackernagel, CEO and founder of the Global Footprint Network.
This isn't without precedent. Similar trends have occurred at times of global crisis, such as the dissolution of the former Soviet Union, the savings and loans crisis in the 1980s and the post-2008 global financial crisis. But every time, as governments try to stimulate the economy and thus increase the demand for resources, our ecological footprint eventually pushes that date earlier and earlier.
Some don't entirely agree with Earth Overshoot Day, saying it doesn't accurately take into account all metrics for measuring our environmental impact. But Wackernagel said that the overarching message is "to translate the numbers in a way that people can understand."
Eric Cole, director of the Ecological Footprint Initiative at York University, which provides the Global Footprint Network with the data, said it is taken from official statistics, including ones provided to United Nations agencies, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization, and Comtrade, which collects international trade statistics.
"I would compare this to economic statistics about the world: how much stuff is produced and consumed. It's all very similar."
Cole said Earth Overshoot Day is another way of looking at the big picture when it comes to trying to plan for sustainable practices.
"The nice thing about the data is we can use it to answer all kinds of interesting questions, such as if we wanted to, let's say, devote more of our lands to soaking up carbon emissions, what would that take?" he said. "And if we're doing that, we can't also at the same time use them for providing timber products … or we can't also use them for providing housing and commercial areas and so on."
That, he said, helps us look at the limits and trade-offs.
Wackernagel believes Earth Overshoot Day is an important part of looking at our planet and our consumption of finite resources.
"What we provide is a fuel gauge," said Wackernagel. "A plane doesn't only fly with a fuel gauge — but a plane without a fuel gauge is very dangerous."
— Nicole Mortillaro
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