ABSTRACT
Twenty-five September 2009 was World Overshoot Day, also known as Ecological Debt Day, the day on which humanity used up all of the resources generated by nature in that year and began living off the Earth’s capital.1 In that year humans used about 40 per cent more resources than the ecosystems of the Earth could generate, equivalent to a household spending more than its income by taking out a loan. Put another way, we would need 1.4 planets like Earth to be able to sustain our consumption levels, assuming economies grew no more. Of course, except during temporary recessions, the world’s economies will continue to grow, sucking up resources and pouring out wastes without any prospect of surcease. Economic growth continues to be vital for bringing people in developing countries out of poverty, but in rich countries the preoccupation with growth has long surpassed its relation with need and has become fetishised.
