As of last week, 20 August to be exact, the Earth has been living in the red in ecological terms.  The date marks the approximate day on which humanity’s ecological resource consumption has exceeded what Earth can renew on an annual basis. 

The commemorative day was developed by British think tank the New Economics Foundation to draw attention to human habits of over-consumption. Humanity first fell into yearly ‘ecological debt’ in the 1970s and the date has been drawing forward on the calendar steadily since.

By 2013, just some 35 weeks into year, and we have demanded a level of ecological resources and services - from food and raw materials to sequestering carbon dioxide from fossil fuel emissions - equivalent to what Earth can regenerate in the whole of 2013.

For the rest of the year, another 17 weeks, the Earth is operating in what has been termed ‘ecological overshoot’.

The Global Footprint Network – which partners the WWF with the New Economics Foundation – estimated in a report last week that mankind is currently using 1.5 times its global capacity for resource regeneration.

While Europe overshoots its capacity an incredible 2.66 times over in order to sustain itself each year, the figure for the United States is even worse at 4.16.  As WWF Europe pointed out last week, if every country in the world was to consume natural resources in the same way as an average European, then we would need 2.66 planets to sustain our current consumption levels.

Not only that but major economies like the European Union also export much of their ecological footprint. For example, between 1990 and 2008 tropical forest three times the size of Belgium was cleared for growing agricultural produce for the EU.  That means that Europe, and perhaps Malta in particular given its lack of natural resources, is effectively using up its own share of resources, and those of other countries too.

For Europe’s part, the European Commission is urging for a more resource-efficient EU economy, having published back in September 2011 a Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe, which calls for the introduction of indicators and targets across the bloc.

The roadmap outlines how Europe's economy can be transformed into a sustainable one by 2050 by proposing ways to increase resource productivity and decouple economic growth from resource use and its environmental impact. It also illustrates how policies interrelate and build on each other and provides a framework in which future actions can be designed and implemented.

But, as yet, no binding laws govern resource efficiency at EU level.

Nor, it must be said, is much being done on a national level here in Malta.  In fact, the very few and limited natural resources that this country has are being abused of and depleted.  Natural water supplies are being sucked from the water table at still alarming rates and there is also good evidence that that water is being polluted by the nitrate residue from pesticides and insecticides.  This is leading not only to the depletion of this scarce resource but it will also necessitate the production of more fresh water from reverse osmosis, a highly energy intensive activity.

Trees in this country are becoming an endangered species and overfishing, such as in the case of tuna and swordfish in Malta’s part of the Mediterranean, is also presenting a risk to those, and other, species.

Interestingly, the Global Footprint Network has developed ‘footprints’ for virtually every country in the world - a resource accounting tool that helps countries understand their ecological balance sheet and gives them the data necessary to manage their resources and secure their future. 

It allows them to assess the value of their country’s ecological assets; monitor and manage their assets; identify the risks associated with ecological deficits; set policy that is informed by ecological reality and makes safeguarding resources a top priority; and measure progress toward their goals.

A total of 151 countries and territories are on the list but, for some reason, Malta is absent from that list.  The fact of the matter is that too many of us believe that what we do in little Malta does not figure into the grand scheme of things, environmental or otherwise.  Nothing could be farther from the truth. We all have a role to play, no matter how small, in reducing resource consumption, and, in the process, in increasing resources.  As such, the sooner the EU starts to set real ‘Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe’ targets for its member states the better.