Today (August 20) is Earth Overshoot Day, according to scientists at Global Footprint Network. That means in about eight months we’ve consumed the renewable resources the Earth takes a year to replenish. If we want to live sustainably and leave our children a world worth inheriting, we need to turn off the lights, stop eating, drinking, driving, flying, and shopping – and hold our breath for the rest of the year – to make up for our unsustainable rate of resource use.

WWF’s Living Planet Report tells us we’re using 50% more resources each year than the Earth can replenish. That’s why we’re seeing climate disruption, fisheries collapsing, aquifer and river levels dropping, fertile soil declining and deserts expanding. In the U.S. we’re actually using resources at five times the sustainable rate. Overshoot Day for the U.S. was back in March! . . .

In 1980 William Catton published a book titled Overshoot, which outlined how the scale of the human enterprise had outgrown our planet. Every year scientists at the Global Footprint Network calculate the day humanity crosses into overshoot for that year. They’ve dubbed it Earth Overshoot Day, and it’s coming up. I’m inviting you at the end of this post to predict when that day will fall this year.

What, exactly, is overshoot? It’s a critical concept to understand, because it is directly related to the concept of sustainability and the ability of humankind to stick around.

A simple way to explain overshoot is analogizing Earth’s resources and ecosystems to your savings account at the bank. In Earth’s case, we don’t get to make new deposits into our natural capital account. We have to make good use of what is on the planet. Just as your savings account earns interest, Earth’s resources are replenished. Acorns fall and new trees grow. Plants absorb carbon dioxide and put oxygen back into the atmosphere. Fish reproduce. . . .

Today is World Population Day, observed in many ways around the world. Every year at this time I survey the landscape and assess our progress toward achieving a sustainable world population.

There is good news and bad. Overall I think progress is being made on my goal of getting overpopulation onto our radar screens. More about that below.

First I want to highlight the efforts of the GrowthBusters project to have more awareness and information about the subject:

1. Top 10 Reasons to Choose a Small Family

2. Top 10 Population Films of All Time

3. Our new video, Should We Stop Worrying and Love the (Population) Bomb:

Next, the bad news. Here are the things that are bugging me today about the world population situation: . . .

As we observe World Population Day (July 11) I thought I’d share some of the most interesting films about human population, or least films with significant population themes.

I posted a list of the films I was considering, and invited you to vote for your favorite (or nominate others), so I could rank them by popularity come World Population Day 2013. So here they are, in the order you ranked them. I’m leaving the voting open on this page, so I’ll come back and revise this list if the voting swings significantly.

Be sure to check out www.worldpopulationday.org for other outstanding videos and other population news.

#1: GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth (2011)
I directed this documentary challenging the myths linking growth with prosperity and fulfillment. It explores how our beliefs about economic, consumption and population growth prevent rational responses to evidence we’ve outgrown the planet. I’m biased, but this film belongs on the list because of its honesty about overpopulation and exploration of the topic’s taboo. GrowthBusters includes interviews with a host leading thinkers like Paul Ehrlich, William Rees and Herman Daly. It also chronicles my own David vs. Goliath adventures in growthbusting: “My mission is to make it okay to be against growth.”
Available on Pivotshare, Amazon, and direct from producer . . .

One of the key roots of so many of the challenges and crises we face is remarkably simple to fix, yet for many reasons the solution has evaded us for decades. The root is population, and the simple fix is for every couple around the world to make responsible, informed decisions about family size. Everyone loves their kids and wants them to have a good life. Conceiving a “quiver full” of children in today’s overpopulated world guarantees a life of scarcity, conflict and misery. Choosing to limit the size of your family is the most loving thing you can do for your children. It should be a no-brainer.

We’re counting down to World Population Day on July 11 by sharing our list of Top 10 Reasons to Choose a Small Family. Of course we can easily come up with 20 reasons, but top 20 lists aren’t all the rage. So please follow our daily posts at www.worldpopulationday.org. Here at this blog I’ll also add the newest reason every day, until we have the full list. . . .