World Environmental Facts

• Number of planet Earths we need

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We are consuming the future

If Earth’s history is compared to a calendar year, modern human has existed for 23 minutes and we have used one third of Earth’s natural resources in the last 0.2 seconds.

We only have one planet

Today we need about 1.4 planets to provide the resources for our consumption and absorb our waste. By the mid 2030s we will need 2 planets. We only have one!

Overuse is increasing

In 2010 “earth overshoot day” was August 21 meaning that from this day humanity lives beyond the ecological capacity of planet earth. Every year the day arrives a little earlier… in 2009 it was September 25. Read about overshoot day here.

We are all part of it

Current overuse is due to our consumption of goods and services. The extraction, production, distribution, use, and disposal of the stuff we buy. As a consumer you have the possibility to make a positive difference.

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2. What does it mean (1 of 4)

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• Number of planet Earths we need

  The global footprint network has developed a measure for our use of Earth’s resources. It measures how much land and water area a human population requires to produce the resource it consumes and to absorb its wastes, using prevailing technology. It includes measures of energy, food, timber, waste. At the moment we are overusing Earth at about 140 percent meaning that we need 1.4 planets to support our consumption of resources.
  • Global Footprint Network - world footprint
  • Report: Ecological Footprint Atlas 2009

• 1. We are consuming the future

     • The Story of Stuff facts (pdf)
     • Wikipedia - human

  2. We only have one planet

     • Global Footprint Network - world footprint

  3. Overuse is increasing

     • Global Footprint Network - Earth overshoot day

  4. We are all part of it

Content

• ALL FACTS
• Number of planet Earths we need
• Resources extracted from Earth
• Total waste dumped
• Fair trade products sold
• World population
• Consumers

• OK, I get it. Bad things are going on
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