Earth Overshoot Day: The warning bell about how fast we are using resources comes earlier and earlier ‘Today is a warning about how wrong we are currently getting things’

Climate campaigners have warned everybody needs to rethink how we consume energy.

Today is Earth Overshoot Day – the day that all of Earth’s natural resources that can be regenerated in 365 days are used up for a year. It is just 209 days into the calendar. Last year it fell on 1 August.

It suggests humans are using natural resources 1.75 times faster than Earth’s ecosystems can regenerate.

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“Resources are finite”

Aaron Kiely of Friends of the Earth said: “Earth’s resources are finite, and we are in a climate emergency. Today is a warning about how wrong we are currently getting things.”

The campaign group wants the UK government to adopt a climate action plan by 2020 that would aim for 100 per cent clean energy; invest in green and affordable transport; ban fracking and stop using dirty fuels; fund large scale insulation and eco-heating schemes; and stop backing harmful infrastructure such as airport expansions.

Humans began using more energy than the planet could reproduce in 1973. Before then the Earth was able to renew all of its resources.