The Earth can't keep up

If you spend your whole year's income in 7 months, that's not good. That's what we're doing to the Earth.

Today (29 July 2019) is Earth Overshoot Day. That's the earliest it's ever been. Already this year we've used up a year's worth of natural resources. To put it another way, what we use in a year takes 1.7 years for the earth to regenerate.

It hasn't always been this bad

In 1970 the date was at the end of the year. We were using the exact amount of resources that Earth could replenish. Yes, there's more people today, but with our advanced technology and better choices we can get our of ecological debt.

Australia hasn't improved

If everyone behaved like Australians, we would need 4 Earths to sustain us. Our overshoot date is March 31 (same as last year) and is one of the worst. (Yes, the USA is still a bit worse).

Is your country not here?

See if you can find your country on this calendar. (The later your country's overshoot date, the better).

Global warming really is global

Local ABC news doesn't normally give international weather reports but this was an exception.

Europe is going through a heatwave. England is set to record it's highest temperature EVER.

Here in Brisbane, Australia, July is our coldest month. This July it looks like every day of the month will reach 20 degrees Celsius (68 Fahrenheit). That's happened only twice before - last year and once early in the 2000's. It never ever happened through all the 1900's.

Meanwhile the US has also been having heatwaves. Normally these affect the elderly quite badly, but this one claimed 32-year-old former SuperBowl player Mitch Petrus.

It's one thing to see a hot or cold day in one place, but when this is happening consistently all around the world we need to take action.