Today, 6th October, have we as humans consumed as many resources as our earth can produce under a whole year. If we, according to WWF, continue in the same speed as we do today we will need another earth in less than 40 years.

The so called “Overshoot Day” when our earth’s renewable resources are depleted takes place today. That means that during the rest of this year we will need to live on the remaining “capital” as our “interest” (that’s bank language) has come to a dead end.

In 2007 we humans will consume about 30 % more natural resources than what the earth can reproduce under a whole year. The speed we waste our resources is unbelievable. In just 20 years we have gone from using as many or less resources that the earth can reproduce. That’s 20 years!

So who is to be blamed? Well the western world is to be blamed. We consume extreme amounts of resources that’s cant even be compared to how little the poor development countries consume. The western ecological footprint is far from too much, it’s extreme. Let’s take USA as an example. USA wastes the majority of the earth’s resources and if everyone lived like the americans we would need five planets. Another example is Sweden. If everyone lived like we in Sweden do we would need 3,4 planets.

We are killing our planet in a rapid and homicidal pace. And so far we have done nothing to prevent our very own destruction.

Image Credit: Public Domain by NASA.