That's It. As of Now, We're Out of Resources for 2010

This past weekend, on August 21 to be exact, we hit "Earth Overshoot Day" for 2010 and it's not a fun occasion, unfortunately. It's the day on which we "exhaust our ecological budget for the year." So from now on, if we eat more threatened fish, chop down more trees, and emit more carbon (and we will), it's all on credit. The idea of Earth Overshoot Day was developed by the always-interesting New Economics Foundation. They calculate it with this formula:

[ world biocapacity / world Ecological Footprint ] x 365 = Earth Overshoot Day Day

---

I can't find the details of their methodology. Obviously, different resources are used and replenished at different rates and it's unclear how they convert them all into a common unit of measurement. But the point is this: This thing we're currently doing cannot last. I'll understand if you don't feel like marking this "GOOD."