Today is Earth Overshoot Day.
That is the day when people will already have used more resources than the planet can regenerate this year.
The World Wildlife Federation has calculated the day every year since 1997.
Overshoot day fell on December 19th that year.
Mark Butler is Policy Director with the Ecology Action Centre and he describes the problem.
“It’s like a bank account. We’re drawing too much. We’re spending our capital and at some point we’ll have no capital left.”
Butler suggests how to reduce those numbers.
“Instead of burning coal or oil – using renewable resources. Also using less energy be it wind energy or solar energy or fossil fuel.”
Canada has the fourth highest ecological footprint in the world.
If the rest of the world consumed as we do, it would take almost 5 earths to sustain global consumption.
