Global Footprint Network, an international research organisation that provides decision-makers with a menu of tools to help the human economy operate within Earth’s ecological limits organises Earth Overshoot Day each year.
Earth Overshoot Day, is the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what the Earth can regenerate in that year.
Australia’s Overshoot Day is March 22nd, the date on which Earth Overshoot Day would fall if all of humanity consumed like Australia's population does. If everyone lived like Australia we would need 4.5 planets.
Australia consumes beyond the capacity of the Earth, our home, to sustain us.
For more information on each Country's Overshoot Days in 2021 see here.
For more information on how Earth Overshoot Day is calculated see here.
There are a range of great resources available at https://www.overshootday.org/
Bianca Manning invites you to consider the consequences of Australia’s failure to listen to and learn from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples about caring for country, and how we can do better and be led by the original custodians of these lands now called Australia.
As we consider Australia's Earth Overshoot Day, Dr Byron Smith reflects on the finitude of the Earth.
As we consider Australia's Earth Overshoot Day, Dr Mick Pope asks us to ponder if the world in which we live is as boundless as we think?
Jane Kelly reflects on what Earth Overshoot Day might have meant in her life if she actually factored the consequences of living beyond our limits.