Earth Overshoot Days and Country Deficit Days

I love data. Data helps to explain in concrete terms. The Footprint Network developed a formula to evaluate a country's Overshoot Day, which is when the country has used up all of the "resources" allocated for a year. The organization has also developed Country Deficit Days, which is the date by which the country has used up its allocated resources based on its land mass. A couple of months ago, I started posting a mini-series on LinkedIn and have decided to dive a little more into each country and challenge myself to post a blog post about each country on its Overshoot and Deficit Day.

I want to try and strike a balance between highlighting how countries are improving their sustainability, while also emphasizing where they can improve. As I dive more into the countries, you might notice that many of them are the same. You might also notice that there are a significant number of countries not present on either list. The idea that much of the world's population lives well within its means is not lost on me. Living in the U.S. and Europe, we are surrounded by hyper-consumption. Fresh non-local food all year round, an endless supply chain of cheap clothing, too many trinkets to ever need. At the same time as the cost of living is higher, the rich are getting richer, and more and more people are falling behind.

In my ideal world, we would live in a very different way - commuting by bike, bus, or train; living in tighter-knit neighborhoods with microgrids and community gardens; eating seasonally; and embracing the abundance that is all around us. All of which are anti-capitalism.

It is also not lost on me that the entire premise of a carbon footprint was developed by the oil industry to pass the blame onto the consumer instead of the producer. However, as our current system exists, for now, the carbon footprint idea provides a metric to work towards. I echo the thoughts of the sustainability industry not wanting to turn nature into just another commodity but that involves convincing the numbers people, I mean the greedy, to completely abandon their entire ethos.

I am looking forward to diving into what countries are doing and not doing to build a more sustainable and just world. I hope to gain a more holistic understanding of where we are heading. This whole series was born out of my mental struggle around what it means to be a sustainability professional at a time when my field struggling with the dismantling by President Trump. Hope and faith are what keep us going and my thought was I would learn more about the good things the rest of the world is doing to create a better future.

I hope you will join me on my adventure, learning about the world through a sustainability focus.