The Earth Is In Overshoot – Is Anyone Listening?

It should come as little surprise to hear that the the planet is in overshoot, with humanity’s insatiable appetite for natural resources only going in one direction - up.

We face a number of planetary tipping points, which is why this year’s Earth Overshoot Day is calculated to be 8 days earlier than last year. We are in an ecological debt to Nature – consuming natural resources faster than Earth can regenerate in a given year.

 Let’s take a brief look at two critical issues indicative of planetary overshoot – water scarcity and species extinction.

Water, Water Nowhere?

Water is precious, and just in the past week there have been two news stories on cities running out of water.  

In Kabul, Afghanistan, a growing population of course has resulted in increased demand for water. Per CNN, Kabul relies almost entirely on groundwater, replenished by snow and glacier melt from the nearby Hindu Kush mountains. Making matters worse has been years of mismanagement and over-extraction, which caused water levels to drop by up to 30 meters over the last decade.

Over in Quito, Ecuador, CNN reported last week that 400,000 residents have endured disruptions to water access after a landslide damaged a pipeline supplying water to the city. Water trucks have been brought in, but this is an expensive and sporadic solution. Also, people cannot always be able to carry heavy jugs of water.  They are being forced to choose between

A number of cities have been close to what’s being called ‘day zero’ and having taps almost go dry in the past few years, from Cape Town to Sao Paolo. Making matters worse is the impact of AI data centers, which use water had a staggering rate.  Ironically (sorry, couldn’t resist), here is a stat generated by AI on water and AI:

AI data centers consume immense amounts of water primarily for cooling their servers, with large hyperscale facilities using around 550,000 gallons (about 2.1 million liters) of water per day, equivalent to what about 4,200 average US people use daily. Globally, data centers currently consume about 560 billion liters of water annually, with projections that this could rise to around

Climate extremes are worsening and we’re diverting water away from people and nature.

Extinction Across the Board

Many scientists believe we are in the midst of the Sixth Mass Extinction, a crisis caused predominantly by human activities. It involves an extraordinarily high rate of species loss across numerous groups —including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates—far exceeding natural background extinction rates.

Let’s consider the state of the planet’s birds. Last month, researchers published findings that more than 500 bird species could vanish within the next century.

According to the State of the World’s Birds report, nearly half of the planet’s bird species are in decline. Habitat loss, logging, invasive species, exploitation of natural resources and climate breakdown were highlighted as the main threats.

In the words of Kerry Stewart, lead author of the research from the University of Reading, “We face a bird extinction crisis unprecedented in modern times.”

[Photo by Sid Balachandran on Unsplash]

Opening Our Eyes

Humans have become a planet-changing force.  Detrimental effects to both people and the planet are happening in front of our eyes. We need a collective global wake up call, and nature has given us many.

Simply put, humans/global society need to change our relationship with nature. We have been taking from Mother Nature for centuries and now we are paying the price for creating a human-centric world without understanding that we are just one part of the web of life.

Our impacts are everywhere - will we finally realize this and change course? Stay tuned.

Suzanne York is Director of Transition Earth.