Humans have used more resources than planet earth can regenerate in a year.
Up early today in Australia watching the French 24 English News channel and saw a mention of Earth Overshoot Day which spiked my interest.
According to those behind Earth Overshoot Day, " it marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year".
The statement does not convey the message well enough. Eyes roll, please explain in simple terms. Humans have used more resources than planet earth can regenerate in a year. And that is why this organisation is not taken seriously and is ignored by the media. It does not know how to communicate a message in simple terms.
I believe that the biggest news story of the year is suppressed by a media that relies on advertisers that sell products that deplete the planets resources.
Together with a good story, badly told by a bunch of poor communicators. “Earth Overshoot Day” should perhaps be renamed, “The Day the Planet Said No”
The only sites covering the Earth Overshoot Day were the French and I found a piece on Forbes, dissing the whole viewpoint
Laptop out, I Googled "News" which returned 13 news sites on the first page. Surely such a historic event in Earths history would make front page news. Sadly no.
I visited the front page of all 13 news sites. Hundreds of stories to see how well reported this alarmist story is.
First up, Yahoo News Headlines - Canadian murderers still on the run, someone vandalised a statue of a dog and an overpriced free supermarket toy.
Next up, News .com.au - Ninja warrior winner and the most read story, "Why a man couldn't sleep"
Next, Just in from ABC news - "Body found in bushland". I headed over to the World section and the headline is about how Boris Johnson was booed in Scotland.
Next up, Channel 9 news - Garlic festival killings. There was a fight a a rugby match and the "Recommended section", how to make chicken curry
Next MSN news. Headline, A money launderer went to a casino and in world news, an old 9/11 story
SBS news - Maoris are protesting and you can buy some straws with a Trump logo on them
The News Daily- Grasshoppers invading Las Vegas, How our ex deputy PM cant live on $200k a year.
The Guardian. Most viewed, Excuses for keeping the unemployed in poverty.
The BBC - Australian swimmer drug cheat Clicking on World News and there was a riot in Brazil.
Eureeka Street News - US war games
Channel 10 News - White people only ads launched in Australia to make advertisers politically correct.
Anonymous News headlines - Someone was corrupt.
Surely the British newspapers would have a mention on their front pages so I headed over to the UK edition of the Daily Mail. Biggest news there is about Love Islands winners. The Sun, headlined by another Love Island story and more boring Brexit coverage. The Daily Express, More Brexit, Boris and Trump bashing.
It seems the newspapers are more interested in us sympathising with our ex deputy PM unable to make ends meet on $200k a year. The price of a free supermarket toy or the winner of Australian Ninja as well as the usual Donald Trump bashing.
Perhaps its not good to talk about the fact that we have used up the earth's resources in record time. That would not please the advertisers who bombard us with things to waste our money on and in doing so using up even more of our precious resources.
The United Nations released a 728-page report last October warning that Earth’s worsening environment will cause drastic changes across the globe. You can read the United Nations Global Environment Outlook here
https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/27652/GEO6SPM_EN.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
The report concludes that unsustainable human activities globally have degraded the Earth’s ecosystems, endangering the ecological foundations of society. Urgent action at an unprecedented scale is necessary to arrest and reverse this situation, thereby protecting human and environmental health and maintaining the current and future integrity of global ecosystems. Key actions include reducing land degradation, biodiversity loss, and air, land and water pollution; improving water management and resource management; climate change mitigation and adaptation; resource efficiency; addressing decarbonisation, decoupling and detoxification; and the prevention and management of risk and disasters. Those all require more ambitious and effective policies, including sustainable consumption and production, greater resource efficiency and improved resource
management, integrated ecosystem management, and integrated waste management and prevention."
Perhaps we are all sick of the climate change spin and are not interested in preserving the planet for future generations because greed is good yeah?
Sources
Global Footprint Network https://www.footprintnetwork.org/
Earth Overshoot day site https://www.overshootday.org/about/
CNN https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/29/us/earth-overshoot-day-trnd/index.html
DW https://www.dw.com/en/world-marks-earliest-earth-overshoot-day/a-49781325