Earth Overshoot Day (Earth Overshoot Day) arrived earlier than expected and the world exhausted, this Thursday (29), all the natural resources that the planet is capable of renewing over a period of one year. In other words, in 2021, the Earth exhausted its energy budget in less than seven months and will have to operate until the end of December with an ecological deficit.
This is one of the worst rates recorded since the world entered environmental overload in the early 1970s. The calculation was made by GFN (Global Footprint Network), an international research organization.
On the one hand, the entity analyzed the planet's biocapacity, which would be the amount of ecological resources that the Earth can generate in a given year. On the other hand, the world's energy demands were assessed. With this information, the institution measured how many days the biocapacity would be sufficient to meet the planet's energy demand.
Getting worse and worse
According to the institution, Overshoot Day has been arriving earlier and earlier as the years go by. In 1970, the world's resources were exhausted on December 29. In 2000, the deficit was reached in October and, in 2010, at the end of August. Among the factors that most contributed to the negative result in 2021 are the 6,6% increase in carbon emissions compared to last year and the 0,5% reduction in global forest biocapacity.
Read also Despite advances to reduce pollutants, the G-20 target is far from being achieved.
Renewable energy
For Markus Vlasits, coordinator of the Storage WG at ABSOLAR (Brazilian Association of Photovoltaic Solar Energy), the data presented by the international research institute are extremely worrying. “The study shows very clearly that we need to change our lifestyle and question the way we eat, the waste we produce and the way we move around. We need to act more intelligently and with less impact on the environment,” he emphasized.
According to the coordinator, Brazil itself is one of the countries that urgently needs to review its environmental policy. “The current water crisis shows the need for greater diversification of the Brazilian energy matrix”, he highlighted.
“It is unacceptable for a country with so many natural resources to have more than 30% of its electrical generation from fossil sources. This is completely unacceptable, because we know that the solution is to increase our renewable matrix – mainly solar – which is the source that can be scaled as quickly as possible”, he highlighted.
Answers of 2
Excellent article Henrique, I have a sanctuary that is pure cerrado, all the farms around it have deforested to plant crops, I have resisted, as there is no longer a place in my region that is completely untouchable by human hands. I will not sell it and will preserve it for posterity. May Brazil start planting instead of just deforesting.
But there is a lot of cascade designed to scare and generate highly anxious, even neurotic, people. But, it's not by chance, no. It is a behavioral conditioning process known, after Pavlov's pioneering studies, as “Dog Training”.