It's Earth Overshoot Day!

[GliderGuider]

We'll hit 156% of the planetary biocapacity by the end of the year - guaranteed! Well done. Let's all drive somewhere to celebrate.

http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/earth_overshoot_day/

[Bigmack]

1. Hmmmmm...Can't quite figure out

How to "celebrate" this one.... Ms Bigmack

[phantom power]

2. celebrate with the healing power of laughter

[BlancheSplanchnik]

3. The BEST thing you can do for the planet--that NO ONE talks about:

[font size=20]DON'T BREED!![/font]

[GliderGuider]

4. Yes. I also wonder if Mom Nature is already lending us a hand.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-israel-sperm-20120816,0,601440.story

Israel sperm banks find quality is plummeting

Dr. Jacob Ronen is in the sperm business. Among other things, as head of Cryobank Israel, the country's largest private sperm bank, he guarantees that his stable of superior donors includes only tall, twentysomething ex-soldiers whose sperm has passed rigorous genetic testing.

But finding such super sperm isn't as easy as it used to be. Only 1 in 100 donors makes the cut. A decade ago, it was 1 in 10.

Simply put, the quality of Israeli sperm is falling at an alarming rate, and no one's sure exactly why.

So the drop in the quality of sperm is raising some red flags, even though the cause remains a mystery. Speculative theories range from the mundane (carrying cellphones in front pockets) to the far-fetched (depleted uranium from exploded munitions). Some Israeli scientists are looking seriously at naturally occurring hormones, particularly estrogen, in Israel's water and milk and suggest that it's a mark of the country's aggressive dairy farming methods.

[Hestia]

7. Agreed - I don't understand the pressure that others give to kids to have children

I was at the beauty shop the other day and a friends child found out she doesn't have a uterus. My first thought and out of my mouth was, "think of the money saved - no tampons, kotex, or birth control!" Major savings on all accounts. Of course, my comment wasn't appreciated. But but but, she can't have children! I said that possibly that her path in life is to help other children who desperately need it. There's a thousand other things to do rather than spit out a kid. This has been my attitude since my teenage years. My ex had to really talk me into have 1 and only 1 child. Thank Goddess it was the son he so desperately wanted because that was it! I'm lucky enough to be with a man who doesn't want children.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. Seems a bit arbitrary

156%? (Seriously? 3 significant digits?)

[GliderGuider]

6. So call it 150. Or email Mathis Wackernagel and ask him.

It was probably done to better impress the proles, though. The ones who skipped the day on significant figures in school.

[caraher]

10. Weirdly, I think you do need that many digits...

Not because the estimate is truly that accurate, but because the rhetorical device of choosing among 365 days the unique day to designate as "Overshoot Day."

[GliderGuider]

11. Nice insight! Thanks, I think that's a very good point. nt

[OKIsItJustMe]

16. All of which simply tends to put me off

When you pretend to have greater precision than you have, this simply lessens your credibility in my estimation.

[GliderGuider]

17. "Ecological Footprint" is an uneasy marriage of science and marketing.

The science is loaded up with assumptions, and then diluted on its trip to the marketing department. I think it means something, but mostly as another sciencey way of saying "!Estamos jodidos!" If it gets the non-scientific man on the street to ask what the fuck is going on here, I'm prepared to cut it some slack.

[caraher]

18. Would "Overshoot Month" have the same impact?

I think that would better reflect the true precision of the estimate.

On the minus side, coarse graining things that much would make it harder to portray changes over time and lend the impression that efforts to improve are not worth making. Seeing "Overshoot Day" push back a little bit at a time might be less discouraging than having "Overshoot Month" just be August or September for years and years...

[GliderGuider]

19. They're also piggybacking on memes like "Tax Freedom Day".

We tend to mark things by days, it's the way our brains work. So as much as this may be bad science or mathematics, it's very good marketing. And that's what's most crucial right now, at least in most peoples' minds.

[tclambert]

8. Or you could look at it flip-sidedly: We need a few billion less people. Soylent Green for everyone!

'Cause you don't want to waste all that protein.

[GliderGuider]

9. True. But we can't eat the North Americans

They're spoiled already.

[tclambert]

14. Ha! Excellent.

But who doesn't like a little Chinese now and then?

[GliderGuider]

15. Except that half an hour later...

nt

[AverageJoe90]

12. Nice graph, but it does seem a tad biased towards China and India, though......

Maybe not intentionally, of course, but China's probably far, far, higher than 1.18 on that scale.....I'd give them a 6 or a 7. At least. And anywhere from to 2 to 4 for India.

[Nihil]

13. It's per capita, not per country.

As a country, yes, both China and India are huge contributors but as the
average individuals in each of those countries, not so much.

[CRH]

20. I'm not sure I like their data set, ...

if this is to assume the sustainable carrying capacity of the planet is 4.7 billion humans.

With consideration for energy, human activity, wealth creation, water, agriculture, shelter, co- existence with other species, just to name a few topics; the 156% seems a bit low.

What does it matter, too many is too many.

[GliderGuider]

21. This number makes the idea of overshoot more palatable to more people.

I suspect the "real" number is under a billion, meaning that we're already 600% over. We'll know eventually - no unsustainable situation can be sustained, after all.