Summer is slowly coming to an end as autumn starts to arrive with colder days, rain and wind. These days, this time of year is also the time for debates about how we’re treating our planet, as Overshoot Day falls earlier and earlier every year. This year it was as early as 29 July, which means that we have already passed the date when we have exhausted the planet’s biological resources that it can renew this year.
Another even more outrageous fact is that the Swedish Overshoot Day is 3 April, which means that if everyone in the world lived like we do here in Sweden, we would use up all resources by early April.
The campaigns around Overshoot Day are calling on a plan to #MovetheDate and this is of course where we need to be going. To move the date later in the year.
Moving the date
To actually move this date, we are encouraged to take action on everything from the food we eat to the way we travel and our energy usage. And we can of course reduce our meat intake, consume and fly less, and look for solutions to our plastic pollution and food waste.
But to actually have a real shot at moving the date, we need big corporations to make big changes. And as rich people and rich countries are using up most of our planet’s resources, they are the ones that need to be held to account. By us as consumers and people, but most importantly by the people in power.
As most often these days, Greta Thunberg is right. In her speech at the Brilliant Minds conference earlier this summer she highlights:
“We need system change rather than individual change. But we cannot have one without the other”.
If you haven’t watched the speech yet then you should definitely do so – you can find it on Youtube here. And let’s follow Greta’s advice.
Admit our failure. Get informed. Think outside the box. And let’s act.