Mathis Wakernagel, ecological debt day
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The clock is ticking for the Earth’s resources. This year, the hands of the clock stopped on the 25th September, or Overshoot Day. That is the day on which we used up the last of the renewable resources for the year that began on the first of January 2009. The Earth has become simply a magical object to be consumed in our lifetime. This Blog interviewed Mathis Wakernagel, creator of the concept of the ecological footprint, the index used to measure human demand on nature. Wakernagel is one of the narrators in the documentary entitled "Earth reloaded".

"Good day, I am Mathis Wackernagel, Executive Director of the Global Footprint Network. We are an international study centre with offices in Oakland, Brussels and Zurich and we collaborate with about 100 partners to raise awareness in decision-making circles regarding the concept of ecological limits. Today (25 September 2009, Ed.) is a very special day, Overshoot Day, or "the day we go into ecological debt".
What does this mean? It means that all the resources that we as humanity have consumed from the first of January until today, however we view them, are all the resources that the Earth will be able to reproduce during the course of 2009. We have used up the entire 2009 budget and we will now have to go into debt. What can we do with this information? In one way it is a bit like having information regarding your bank account at your disposal. If you spend more than you earn for an extended period of time, sooner or later you will land up going bankrupt. Natural resources are no different. If we continue the way we are going, sooner or later we will be facing ecological bankruptcy. Which is more difficult to overcome than financial bankruptcy because, while we can simply print more money, we cannot do the same thing in the case of natural resources.
So, what can we do about this? The first thing is to view ecological processes in the same way we view financial ones and review the way in which we “spend” and manage the resources. The majority of our policies are based on demand: “how can we increase sales irrespective of what will it cost in terms of resources?” We are simply opting to consume more resources every year. What we need to do is to find some way of maintaining our lifestyle using only those resources that the Earth is able to produce.
How do we do this? We must pay more attention to the way in which we build towns. Here is one example. Siena, in Italy, whose residents enjoy a good standard of living, uses approximately one third of the resources per capita of those used by the residents of Houston, Texas. This is certainly a start. Personally, I would prefer to live in Siena rather than in Houston. The way in which we build our towns essentially dictates how we utilise our resources. This notwithstanding, if everyone lived like the people living in Siena, it would take three planet Earths to sustain this kind of lifestyle for every inhabitant of our planet.
What else can we do? Obviously we must support and urge our governments to be more proactive as regards climate change. CO2 emissions contribute about 50% of humanity’s ecological footprint. In countries such as Italy, and in many other industrialised countries, C02 emissions are responsible for 70% of the Country’s ecological footprint. If we manage to drastically reduce our CO2 emissions – and the scientists are asking us to reduce emissions by 80% within 2050 – we will also address the problem of overruns. The difficult thing is to meet this challenge without simply shifting the problem elsewhere. For example, while biofuels could well reduce C02 emissions, they would also produce an enormous impact in other areas, like the virgin forests and the tropical forests for the production of palm oil. We must address the problem rather than simply shift it elsewhere.
Our governors have a golden opportunity to sign important agreements. The first opportunity will come this week in New York, namely the UN meeting for climate week, where many leaders and diplomats are gathering in preparation for the Copenhagen meeting scheduled for December this year, for which we have very high expectations. The other opportunity is the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh, also due to take place in the next few days, where the delegates are gathering to draft a agenda for Copenhagen (global meeting on climate change).
Many of us will probably be disappointed by any agreements that may be reached in because they may not go far enough. In which case we will be called upon to react even more forcefully. In a world without a strong Copenhagen agreement, there will be even more confusion and unrest. Countries will have to adapt even more quickly to the shortage of resources. We live in hope that others will act on our behalf, however, in a world where the ecological budget is continuously being exceeded, unless we citizens are prepared to live in a more efficient manner, we will be the ones that suffer due the shortage of resources. Therefore, irrespective of whether or not the Copenhagen Conference delivers a strong agreement, we will have to act locally.
Another thing we can do is keep track. Just as we keep track of any movements in our bank account, every nation should keep track of the what biological resources the Country has at its disposal, what resources are drawn and what resources are utilised.
Should you wish to find out what your ecological footprint is, kindly visit our website. Italy doesn’t appear, but Switzerland does and it is very similar to Italy, and you can take the test in Italian. Go to ecological footprint."

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