Headline, September 21 2020/ MODEL ONE PLANET

MODEL ONE PLANET

A key side effect of disaster-driven emission reductions is the fact that "the pain is going to be unevenly distributed," according Wackernagel. Marginalised groups, especially people of color, have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic's "huge economic impacts," said Sarah George, a senior reporter with Edie, a UK media company that promotes sustainable business practices.

Edie conducted its first Earth Overshoot webinar in 2019, with the aim of educating organizations to reduce their resource footprint through business models that are sustainable for everyone in the long-term.

This year's webinar on August 22 also addressed the misnomer spread by some climate skeptics that a green, low-consumption future is only possible under the deprivations of a lockdown.

"They have used the situation to say that lockdown is 'what green campaigners want,' and that we cannot enjoy things like international travel, economic growth, etc. in a green future," George told DW.

But post-lockdown, George says the goal is to create a one planet model through which businesses can couple "better economic and social outcomes" with "lower emissions and air pollution."

Ecological debt balloons in developing countries
Earth Overshoot Day is calculated both globally and among individual countries, and reveals how developed nations are eating up the earth's biocapacity at a much faster rate.

In the US, where overshoot day falls on March 14 this year, citizens will require around five planets to maintain their outsized ecological footprint. Germany overshoots 50 days later on May 3, but still requires two planets.

"In Sweden we live as if we had about 4 planets according to WWF and Global Footprint Network, and roughly the same goes for the entire Nordic region," wrote climate activist Greta Thunberg last October when rejecting a Nordic Council environment award on the grounds that people in power should instead "listen to the current, best available science."

While Scandinavia is known for world-leading investment in renewable energy, and in rapid transport electrification in the case of Norway, Global Footprint Network data shows that individual consumption remains highly unsustainable. By contrast socialist outpost Cuba, which overshoots on December 1, is one of the few nations that's almost living within its means. 

In Australia, a country regarded as a biocapacity giant due to its relatively small population and vast natural resources, is now running a biocapacity deficit for the first time in its history following the devastating fires of 2019-2020. The world's driest continent exhausted its ecological capacity on March 30 this year.

A fire-ravaged Australia has, according to a Global Footprint Network report, shown "how fragile biocapacity can be."

"With climate change and resource overuse, we place greater demand on ecosystems that are essential for the survival of not only humanity but wildlife species as well," wrote the authors. "Growing demand met by less robust biocapacity becomes a dangerous combination."

But any attempt to move the date towards one planet compatibility will require a systematic reduction of our ecological footprint in a way that also conforms with the strictures of climate science.

For Mathis Wackernagel, this must start with the individual, a principle that is also fundamental to fighting the coronavirus. "If you protect yourself, you protect everyone," he says.

With respectful dedication to the Environmentalists and Emerging leaders of the world. See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011:

Sustainable Systems

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless