On the verge of collapse?

Sustainability is a term we see used around a lot these days; we often see it in the marketing campaigns of several brands, companies talking about how their products are sustainable or environmentalists discussing sustainability as a crucial must to save our planet. The term holds significant value but is tossed around at a magnitude far lower than what it holds. 

To put it succinctly, sustainability or a sustainable process is one where the implication or rather the ramification is the maintenance of the natural resource at an optimum level. If we take Petrol or Oil into consideration, the rate at which we mine them is far greater than the rate at which they are repleted. When we see that various brands are implementing strategies to become more sustainable, they either switch to a more renewable source or change the manufacturing process so that the consequence is the minimum depletion of the natural resource employed.

 

The exploitation of natural resources so far has had an alarming and distressing effect on the environment around us. The consequences that we are facing and that we will have to face in the future because of our negligence towards the environment are nothing short of fatal. Several places, not limited to Italy, USA, Spain, France and Turkey have had terrible wildfires. This has destroyed not just our carbon sinks but also costed us the diverse fauna and flora that is part of these ecosystems. The countries of Germany, China, Italy and others have had terrible floods where various individuals lost their homes and many others, their lives. Typhoon In-Fa is the second-wettest cyclone to ever be recorded in China. It caused damages upto $2 billion. 61% of continental US is under varying degrees of drought for more than 40 weeks now. The Antarctic outbreak caused it to snow in summer in Brazil for the first time in 64 years. The reason for all these repercussions can be boiled down to the exploitation of natural resources and the absolute disregard for the environment.

Earth Overshoot Day falls on that day of the year when humanity exhausts the ecological resources budget for the given year. The year 2019 witnessed one of the earliest earth overshoot days ever. In 2021, it fell on July 29. It means that we have already exhausted the resources for that year and for the remaining 5 months of 2021, we are operating in an ecological deficit. The various impacts of this-like those mentioned above-are climate change, biodiversity loss, and extreme weather events. Although, luckily, a thriving life within the means of our planet are not out of reach. 

Overshootday.org talks in depth about the current situation and how to evade the crisis we are in and for a better future. The way to deal with the current solution is to move to a sustainable way of living, not on an individual level but rather at an international level. The collective efforts of various countries will enable us to move towards a greener planet where these consequences can be confined to books. We can and must implement various strategies that result in lowering of the waste we create, our carbon footprint and the harm we cause to the environment with the various activities we undertake. It isn't too late to make it right and save our planet. Let us all try to push the Earth Overshoot Day one day at a time!