This blog post was originally posted here on July 28.
By July 28th – Earth Overshoot Day – humans will have used more ecological resources and services this year than what our planet can regenerate.
The rate at which we are emitting greenhouse gases and using our clean water, healthy soil, oil reserves, and carbon-storing forests exceeds the Earth’s capacity. Despite the important role it plays to our lives and livelihoods, agriculture is also one of the largest drivers of planetary overshoot, and mitigation action to reduce our natural resource use and emissions is essential to #MoveTheDate of Earth Overshoot Day in the coming years.
At the same time, combined with other external shocks, climate change is critically threatening food security and affecting our food systems around the world. From declining yields to increased conflict and migration, the projected and observed impacts of climate change on food production are severely hindering the resilience of our food systems. Communities that are faced with various sources of vulnerability, through poverty and marginalisation, are the ones most impacted by climate change. While Earth Overshoot Day highlights the need to mitigate climate change and reduce emissions, we also need to adapt to the effects of humanity having crossed planetary boundaries in the past decades.
Continue reading on the Farming First blog.
