InsightOut #5: Overshooting and Biodiversity

Welcome to InsightOut #5!

This week brings Italy's Overshoot Day, marking the point when we’ve used up more resources than our planet can regenerate in a year. It's the day we surpass the planet's capacity to renew the resources we consume.

But what does it really mean to overshoot our planet's resources?

Let's take a closer look at this concept: picture the Earth as a store that that has a finite number of supplies —let's call this quantity X— enough to last from January 1 to December 31. However, our consumption habits have led us to deplete X long before the year ends.

In 2024, Italy hit this point on Sunday, May 19, but it’s a global problem, here you can see every country Overshoot Day date:

Yet, we didn't actually run out of supplies since Sunday, did we?

Indeed, it doesn't translate to an immediate scarcity of water or food or other resources; rather, from this point on, we're borrowing from the future.

It means we're using up resources that should have been preserved for future generations. This is not sustainable—it's like earning an annual salary but spending it within months, forcing one into debt for the rest of the year. Imagine living off your annual salary but depleting it by spring. The rest of the year, you'd be digging into savings not yet made, a financial gambit that’s neither sustainable nor fair to your future self or loved ones.

What's even more worrying is the trend we can witness, which made overshoot day fall closer and closer each year, globally:

Amidst this week, yesterday we also celebrated the World Bee Day ??, underlining the intricate dance between biodiversity and resource management. Bees, those tiny but mighty pollinators, crucial to the tapestry of life that sustains our ecosystems.

But what is biodiversity and why does it matter?

Biodiversity comes from the latin terms “bio” (=life) and “diversity”; it is all about the variety of life, at all levels—from genes to ecosystems. It's not merely about having a picturesque backdrop of flora and fauna; it's about sustaining the ecosystems that provide essential services like air and water purification, food production, and climate regulation.

The biodiversity we often take for granted is the very foundation of our existence. The rich mosaic of life is essentially the Earth’s library. It houses millions of years of evolutionary intelligence, a repository of potential solutions to challenges we face, from disease resistance in crops to natural methods of pest control. We owe our own existence to the existence of a diverse bank of DNA in the past that helped foster our evolution. Lose biodiversity, and you’re losing a tremendous amount of evolutionary potential.

So the bigger goal here is to preserve as diverse a stock of DNA as possible. Protecting this diversity is about safeguarding our future.

The Economic Angle

Biodiversity isn’t just a nice-to-have for nature lovers—it’s a must-have for the economy. More than half of the global GDP depends on services provided by healthy ecosystems:

Facing the 6th Mass Extinction

During Earth’s history, there were 5 major mass extinctions, the most known occurred over 65 million years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs??.

With predictions of over a million species at risk, many scientific research forecast the possibility of an upcoming 6th Mass extinction, this, for the first time, primarily driven by human activity.

1 million plant and animal species currently at risk of extinction;

69% drop in wildlife population sizes since 1970

>1 in 10: vertebrate animal species may be lost by 2100

What Can We Do?

Embracing Our Role as Ancestors of the Future

I believe that everything starts with awareness. We need to connect the dots between how we live and the impact we have.

Supporting sustainable practices, reducing waste, and advocating for policies that protect natural habitats are actions within our reach.

We often worry too much about being good descendants rather than being good ancestors, maybe a change of perspective in this sense would help us focus on the long-term health of our planet, not just our immediate needs.

So here’s a thought to ponder: If we know that the way we live today shapes the world of tomorrow, why do we continue to make choices that threaten our own future? Each decision we make, every resource we consume, writes a part of the script for generations yet to come.

So, as we reflect on our roles as custodians of this planet, shouldn't we aim to be not just good descendants but visionary ancestors? What kind of Earth do we want to pass down, and are we brave enough to make the necessary changes today to ensure a thriving world for those who will inherit it?

That's all for this week's InsightOut!

• If you want to learn more about Overshoot Day, take a look here
• If you are wondering why we celebrate a Bee Day, 联合国粮农组织 has an answer for you
• BONUS: curious about a list of the 100 more sustainable companies of 2024?

???? FEEDBACK: what do you think of InsightOut so far?

Help me out by filling this form so I can improve this space ?? Let me know what you think

See you next week,

Cheers,

Nadia