8月20日：地球生态超载日

 

Humans have used up the natural resources the Earth can provide for the year and are now in 'overdraft¹', campaigners have warned.

 

The world has reached 'earth overshoot day' today, August 20, the point in the year that humans have exhausted² supplies such land, trees and fish and outstripped⁴（超过） the planet's annual capacity to absorb waste products including carbon dioxide.

 

For the rest of the year, the world is in ecological⁵ debt, with fish stocks and forests being depleted⁶, land degraded and carbon dioxide building up in the atmosphere, the Global Footprint Network said.

 

Earth overshoot day is calculated by comparing the demands made by humans on global resources - our 'ecological footprint' - with the planet's ability to replenish⁷ resources and absorb waste.

 

This year, in less than nine months we have used as much of nature as the Earth can regenerate⁸ in a year. Earth overshoot day has fallen a couple of days earlier than it did last year.

 

The Global Footprint Network said that in 1961, humanity only used around two-thirds of the available natural resources on Earth, but by the 1970s increased carbon emissions⁹ and consumption began to outstrip³ what the planet could provide.

 

Humans now need the equivalent of 1.5 planets to sustain us, and by mid¹⁰ century it will have risen to two planets, the campaigners said.

 

China has the biggest total ecological footprint, because of its large population, but other countries have much higher demands on resources per person. If everyone were to live like U.S. residents we would need four planets to supply demand, the report said.

 

Four-fifths of the world's population live in countries that use more than their own natural systems can provide. In this country, we would need the equivalent of three and a half UKs to sustain current consumption levels.

 

The world can no longer sustain the widening budget gap between what nature is able to provide and how much our infrastructure¹¹, economies and lifestyles require, they said.

 

Alessandro Galli, Global Footprint Network regional director, said: 'Everyday life in many Mediterranean¹² countries is showing us what it means to live beyond financial limits.

 

'Ecological and financial deficits¹⁴ are two sides of the same coin. Over the long run, nations cannot deal with one deficit¹³ without addressing the other.'

 

Andrew Simms, climate economist¹⁵ at Global Witness, who came up with the concept of earth overshoot day at UK think tank the New Economics Foundation, said: 'The Government consistently tells us that we must buckle¹⁶ down and live within our financial means, but seems intent on pushing us to break our environmental budget.

 

'The maths is simple - the UK consumes and produces waste at a rate three and a half times greater than we can sustain, and today humanity has already exhausted what the planet's ecosystems¹⁷ can provide in a year.

 

'We're in the red and gambling¹⁸ with ecological bankruptcy¹⁹, as the fracking debate shows. If it chose to, the Government can always print more money, but it can't print more planet. Ecological overshoot should lead the political agenda.'

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