{"id":13058,"date":"2018-07-30T00:28:32","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T00:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=13058"},"modified":"2018-07-31T00:30:16","modified_gmt":"2018-07-31T00:30:16","slug":"yes-humans-are-depleting-earths-resources-but-footprint-estimates-dont-tell-the-full-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/yes-humans-are-depleting-earths-resources-but-footprint-estimates-dont-tell-the-full-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes, humans are depleting Earth’s resources, but ‘footprint’ estimates don’t tell the full story"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert B. Richardson<\/a>, Michigan State University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Experts widely agree that human activities are harming the global environment. Since the Industrial Revolution, the world economy has grown dramatically. Overall this is a success story, since rising incomes have lifted millions of people out of poverty. But it has been fueled by population growth and increasing consumption of natural resources. <\/p>\n

Rising demand to meet the needs of more than 7 billion people<\/a> has transformed land use and generated unprecedented levels of pollution, affecting biodiversity, forests, wetlands, water bodies, soils and air quality.<\/p>\n

On August 1, humans will have consumed more natural resources in 2018 than the Earth can regenerate this year, according to the California-based Global Footprint Network<\/a>. This environmental nonprofit calculates the annual arrival of Earth Overshoot Day<\/a> \u2013 the date when humanity\u2019s demands on nature exceed what the network\u2019s analysts estimate the Earth can regenerate over the entire year. August 1 is the earliest date since ecological overshoot began in the early 1970s. <\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a>
\n August 1 is the earliest arrival of Earth Overshoot Day since humans started overusing the planet\u2019s resources in the 1970s.<\/span>
\n Global Footprint Network<\/a>, CC BY-SA<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As an ecological economist and scholar<\/a> of sustainability, I am particularly interested in metrics and indicators that can help us understand human uses of Earth\u2019s ecosystems. Better measurements of the impacts of human activities can help identify ways to sustain both human well-being and natural resources. <\/p>\n

Earth Overshoot Day is a compelling concept and has raised awareness of the growing impact of human activities on the planet. Unfortunately, the methodology used to calculate it and the ecological footprint on which it is based is conceptually flawed and practically unusable in any science or policy context. In my view, the ecological footprint ultimately does not measure overuse of natural resources \u2013 and it may very well underestimate it.<\/p>\n

Rising demands, finite resources<\/h2>\n

The Global Footprint Network estimates when Earth Overshoot Day will arrive based on its National Footprint Accounts<\/a>. These include extensive data sets that the organization uses to calculate two overarching indicators: <\/p>\n