It's Earth Overshoot Day again. Two years ago it was 26th July, last year, mostly due to Covid, Earth Overshoot Day was
22nd August, so globally the situation has slightly improved. The first Earth Overshoot Day was 30th December 1970 and
they have been slowly getting closer to January ever since. It's vital for humanity to push back the date towards the
latter few months, as the population cannot keep borrowing from the future. We need to keep our resource use inline with
our ability to replace it.
Earth Overshoot Day is computed by dividing the planet’s biocapacity (the amount of ecological resources Earth is able
to generate that year), by humanity’s Ecological Footprint (humanity’s demand for that year), and multiplying by 365,
the number of days in a year. Back in 1961, we only needed 1.5 Earths to live like Kiwis, we reached an all time high of
needing 3.64 Earths in 2003, we have lowered our resource use to a smaller amount, in 2016 we needed 2.91 Earths.
Clearly, this is still too many, as we only have the one! Thus the absolute dire need to act as if the next generations
depend on our actions now.
This year New Zealand's Earth Overshoot Day was the 15th May. We cannot claim to be clean and green with a date in the
first 6 months of the year and some 75 days before the global average, for a country with our population, that's quite
an achievement, and not in a good way!
A part of the problem is too many cows, and there is a solution to that, to grow more plants instead. New Zealand must
respond to climate change and Earth Overshoot Day with responsibility for future generations. As part of the solution,
The Vegan Society Aotearoa NZ is launching a petition that calls on the government to incentivise farmers to diversify
for a sustainable future. This will help New Zealand's farmers to transition towards growing more plants. Many beef and
dairy farmers already diversify and grow various crops as well as animal agriculture, The time has come for more to
follow in their footsteps.
There has been too much emphasis placed on dairying and that needs to be addressed. The quickest way to address climate
change is to reduce the methane emissions, and this means a reduction in the dairy herd. Our rivers are suffering, the
land is suffering and there is nitrate pollution throughout the country.
Sign and read more about the petition: https://www.vegansociety.org.nz/petitions/