Thursday, July 29, 2021

Earth Overshoot Day

Today is Earth Overshoot Day, the day when "we" collectively have used as many resources as the planet can produce in a year. Starting tomorrow, humans are using resources that are, in effect, provided by future generations. 

What I hadn't thought about before, I admit, is that this is an average, and so (of course!) the U.S.'s overshoot day was months ago.

March 14, to be exact, according to this graphic from the Global Footprint Network. There aren't many countries worse than us — just two small oil-producing nations and Luxembourg, with Kuwait and Canada tied with the U.S. What's up with Luxembourg?

Meanwhile, here in Minnesota we've just come off a day with a 105°F heat index, and now today we have the highest particulate reading in our history because of forest fires north and west of here. Oh, and we're in a drought, too, but our state climatologist says that's not part of climate change (for us), since Minnesota's future is projected to be wetter than our past, not drier. 

Stop Line 3, Governor Walz, or President Biden, or whoever can.

 

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