Last week earth overshoot day was registered. No, that is not the earth overshooting its orbit around the sun, or anything as fancy. But it is extremely worrying. Earth overshoot day is the day when the whole world consumes more resources than the earth is capable of producing. This year, it fell in August. The day has been moving earlier up the calendar each passing year, but this year set a new record and was by far the biggest jump ever registered.

We have already witnessed the change in weather patterns. The storms that lashed Malta slap bang in the middle of summer are unheard of. This was again followed up by another downpour last Sunday. Rising sea levels and climate change are particularly worrying for a small island state like ours. In an arid climate and surrounded by sea water, we are particularly vulnerable to the effects of what is happening with the world’s climate.

Malta is a country that is still heavily dependent on fossil fuels. We produce our potable water by using electricity – which in turn – is generated by burning fossil fuels. We have one of the lowest scores on the renewable energy scoreboard in the European Union. Our recycling has improved vastly and continues to improve as the years roll on. But we are still part of a very consumer orientated society. We buy mobiles that last just about 18 months, before they fail. And they are designed to do exactly that. To make mobiles, the earth must be mined and more rare metals need to be extracted, further depleting our resources.

Malta’s attitudes have changed over the years. But Europe (and the world in general) must get a plan of action put into motion to stop depleting the earth. For starters, companies should be bound to ensure that gadgets have a longer life than they currently do. We could go back to glass, rather than plastic for packaging (which was an EU directive). And we could do away with all the extra packaging that comes with each and every product on the market nowadays. Sometimes, the packaging is bigger than the actual item itself.

The capitalist system as we know it is creaking and shuddering. In Europe, we have seen stuttering growth which does not seem to be picking up and this is a clear signal that things just cannot go on as they are.

In contrast, many communities are slowly going back to basics. People are growing their own fruit and veg, they are recycling furniture and giving new life to old contraptions. We cannot go on with this throwaway mentality. What about the generations of tomorrow? Not only will they have to deal with cleaning up the toxic mess that we have been creating since the early 1900s, but they will not have the resources to do it. The oceans are becoming more acidic, leading to algae blooms and fish die offs and if we continue as we are, there will simply be no world left for us. Some experts believe that the world will be change irrevocably in as soon as 50 years. That is within the life span of people that are alive today. We must change and we must change now.