six days earlier than in 2021
If all of humanity lived like an average person in, the planet’s ability to produce the resources already available in Portugal, and credit, as of today, we would be “environmental credit debt”, consuming the resources of 2023. This year, Earth overload day was reached six days earlier in our country, as in 2021 the “only” date was marked on May 13th.
Susana Fonseca, from the environmental association Zero, says that “we need to start thinking much more about our model of production and consumption”. “We improve the efficiency of many goods and shape how we transform resources, but we also continue to use many goods that are short-lived, so we have to keep producing new things. We are not optimizing what is already in the economy, we are not there is circularity and many of our resources still end up in landfill”, he laments.
Data from the Global Footprint Network show many countries, including those considered, with the largest ecological footprint than Portugal (see infographic). Qatar, for example, is one of the first to run out of its environmental credit card, not even reaching the end of February. In the case of Portugal, the natural resources available for 2022 consumed 127 days.
Critical points
These are signs that, in general, we are not yet structurally altering the way society works while, in order to guarantee the planet within the limits of the Portuguese, we cannot emphasize that Susana Fonseca, who exhorts people to think “how to maximize the and country characteristics to change this trend”.
The use of ecological food (32% of the country’s global footprint) and mobility (18%) are among the daily activities that most contribute to the Ecological consumption and the critical points for mitigation, points to Zero.
take advantage of telecommuting
The need to plan is to produce more in terms of food, unless it is argued that the association may be foods that are, above all, recommended foods in the food circle, rather than recommended foods that end up having repercussions on health. ).
In mobility, “we can stick to the change not to electric vehicles. The focus should be to seek to privilege electric collective transport”, as well as means of mobility.
Other measures are taking steps to prevent telecommuting travel and digital tools. It is also necessary to regulate so that the products sold are not usable, making them more recyclable. This “creates qualified work areas and promotes a reduction in the possibility of taking products”, refers to Zero.
Susana believes that, despite everything, positive “haha” in Europe, worry about sustainability, like food or food. She hopes that the Recovery and Resilience Plan will be used for social transformations, with a view to greater respect for the limits of the planet.
To determine when it is reached or limited, the Global Footprint Network divides the planet’s biocapacity (the amount of ecological resources that the Earth is capable of generating that year) by the Ecological Footprint of each country (taking into account the consumption of food, goods and citizens’ services, the natural resources that use the carbon dioxide conveyed for the production of goods and services).