Farmers know it, fishermen know it, health workers know it, consumers know it and scientists know it. The earth, nature, air, sea and soil, plants and animals are an integral part of our lives; we need them, we benefit from them but, all too often we do not appreciate them and routinely we abuse them.
And we do this increasingly to our cost as we note negative changes in the quality of air we breathe, the vegetables and fruit we taste, the fish we eat, the water we pollute and the ‘natural’ land we abuse.
We rightly complain when these things happen and we regret the loss of ‘life quality’ but we simultaneously act as if this had little to do with us and the way we live our daily lives – it’s as if someone else is responsible for these problems – the government, business, builders, car drivers, the EU, Americans, etc., we are never short of ‘others’ to blame.
And yet we know deep down, all is not well and this affects us, our children and our grandchildren. And, we know it doesn’t have to be this way.
Earth Overshoot Day (marked today) is the day when we take stock of such things – the day when we analyse the total combined consumption of all humans on Earth and compare it with the planet’s ability to generate the resources we need for that year.
When scientists began to measure our impact on the earth’s capacity in detail in 1987, December 19 represented the day when we had used up the earth’s annual natural budget. Since then, we have rapidly increased the speed with which we use up this budget to the point when the current overshoot day falls earlier and earlier each year.
Knowing the scale and impact of our ecological footprint is hugely important – it measures the amount of nature we use from January 1 till August 2 and assesses it against how much nature can renew in each year. It highlights the reality that after this date we are in deficit with nature – it’s as if by August 2, we have spent all the money we have for the entire year.
Operating this way is possible for a short time but as all debtors know, there comes the day we cannot avoid. If you have a lot of assets, you can overspend for quite a while and nature does have considerable assets (for now) so the consequences are not yet immediate, they remain distant and herein lies the problem.
Countries in the Mediterranean are particularly vulnerable ecologically – Malta, for example currently uses the ecological capacity of 7.3 Maltas to sustain itself
Our ecological footprint measures how much area is needed to produce everything we depend on – from orange juice to cereals, meat, clothes, shoes and cars etc. as well as absorbing the CO2 from our fossil fuel burning and from the cities in which we live. It effectively compares human demand for nature with how much nature is available.
And, as we suspect, the news is not good. Knowing our footprint highlights an important limiting factor that we face – it is the earth’s ability to renew. Today, our carbon footprint makes up more than 60 per cent of humanity’s footprint as our economy is built very heavily on fossil fuels.
These realities translate into the fact that currently we are using the resources of 1.6 planets to satisfy demand on the global ecosystem; we are using materials and energy from nature about 60 per cent faster than they can be renewed. Countries with small biocapacities, such as islands like Malta, reach their respective ‘country overshoot day’ much, much sooner in the year than countries with larger bio-capacities or ecological footprints.
Countries in the Mediterranean are particularly vulnerable ecologically – Malta, for example currently uses the ecological capacity of 7.3 Maltas to sustain itself. This is only possible if we use up our natural reserves (thus, dipping into our savings and damaging our environment in the long term) or depend on international trade (as we live in a globalised world, we can get food from distant places, so we don’t usually feel the overuse directly in our lives). Our high income (in world terms) shields us from the reality.
We all naturally want to have ‘quality lives’ but we equally recognise that this is not simply a function of wealth and consumption – somewhere in the equation nature and our relationship with it remains pivotal.
If all of humanity lived in the style of the average American, we would require five planets (if in the style of the average Maltese, 1.4 planets). The impossibility of such equations is obvious. Currently, our lifestyles are dependent on others not living similarly, especially those in the developing world.
However, it’s not all bad news – there is a lot we can and need to do from simple, common sense actions to more challenging ones. First and foremost, we need to accept that there is an issue here and that we are all a part of it one way or another.
We need to recognise that it affects each one of us directly and indirectly – refusing to do this is akin to the turkey voting for Christmas. Fundamental to the issue is the promotion of a vigorous public discussion and debate – businesses, planners, politicians, teachers, journalists and media commentators, women’s groups, trade unions and church structures must take on the challenges. So, the first thing to recognise is that discussing the issue does not make us ‘an environmental idealist or, worse extremist’ but rather a realist, one living right now in this world.
There are a host of actions each of us can take personally as citizens and consumers in two fundamental areas – energy use and eating. Obvious actions – don’t waste water, paper, food (food waste is a special problem – about 35 per cent of all food produced in Europe ends up in the bin); use energy efficiently, don’t waste it; use energy-efficient appliances; become aware of commodities that damage nature (for example many body washes and gels), opt for fairly-traded products.
Reduce your meat consumption, especially that of beef (the moans are already audible but really, it’s no big deal!). And, as we already know, we need to look at our use of the car (Malta is already acutely aware of this, but…) and of air travel.
In a nutshell we need to reduce, recycle and re-use, cliched as that statement reads. These are just some of the options we have.
Most importantly of all, we need to insist that the challenge of earth and country overshoot moves up the political agenda. Let us not have our children and grandchildren ask us ‘Even though you knew about it, you did precious little or nothing about it. Why did you leave your mess for us to sort?’
Colm Regan is an educator who has been involved with human rights issues.