Earth Overshoot and Earth Day in one week, Ironic or coincidence?
Papatūānuku is fed up…
with our toxic extractive ways of being and dumping. There is no AWAY!!
Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. In 2022, New Zealands Earth Overshoot Day lands on April 19th. We maintain this deficit by liquidating stocks of ecological resources and accumulating waste, primarily carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Earth Overshoot Day is hosted and calculated by Global Footprint Network, an international research organization that provides decision-makers with a menu of tools to help the human economy operate within Earth’s ecological limits.
As of April 19th in Aotearoa we have literally used up this years resources and are now borrowing from the future to live for the next 8 months. When we speak of leaving our future generations something to live on the way we act does not follow through with that kōrero.
“The fundamental principle of circular systems thinking is that everything is interconnected”
Dr Leila Acaroglu Disruptive Design Method
Earth Day lands on April 22 2022
EARTHDAY.ORG’s mission is to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide.
Growing out of the first Earth Day in 1970, EARTHDAY.ORG is the world’s largest recruiter to the environmental movement, working with more than 150,000 partners in over 192 countries to drive positive action for our planet.
Does anyone else find it ironic that these two dates coincide within 2 days of each other?
Res.Awesome has been wondering if anyone else is seeing this as ironic or just a coincidence, one date showing us how much further we have to go in saving our resources and one date allowing us time to honour Papatūānuku and all she does for us. What are the odds that in this year 2022 when we are at a critical point in our global warming process we have both of these opportunities knocking on our door.
What is Papatūānuku trying to tell us?
Are we listening or just living?
Do we have the capacity to change? or are we so stuck in the system we can’t get off the treadmill?
As you can tell we have so many questions for the humans who live on this planet. We also have some ideas about why, we don’t know for sure but we can hazard a good guess, one key factor for humans is the disconnection from each other + Papatūānuku, we know this from our own journeys navigating the precarious world we are living in. We know because we became disconnected too, and we are still on our journey back to her, and whilst we journey we figure why not share and bring others with us. The best remedy for this connection is to spend time with her, go outside, be in the sun, breathe air, listen to her sounds, take off your shoes and feel her beneath your feet. Gift her some time to say
“Thank You for holding us for so long, Papatūānuku.”
We have such a beautiful backyard to explore, just be careful of any water sources, don’t drink it if you haven’t checked it out first, we are not 100% Pure New Zealand as some advertising companies would have you believe. Our systems are broken too, and this is fundamentally what we are needing to create a change in, is the way we take, make and waste our resources, in the global large scheme of things it just makes sense as these are the industries which are polluting and extracting to produce, consume and then throw away into Papatūānuku. Fossils fuel our world, natural resources make up the majority of our “stuff” around us, look around you now, what can you identify that is wood, paper, metal, glass or plastic? Did you know that these are all natural resources taken from Papatūānuku to create things?
Doubtful Sound, Fiordland, New Zealand Image by Chris Norman
We have constructed and built ourselves a nice little slice of paradise here on earth. Some of us have more accessibility to it than others, as we’ve perpetuated the desires of value chains and the industrial capitalist complex has taken over.
Another challenge which is where we believe we are at in this moment of change. Not just sustaining what we have but really creating a more equitable system that we can all access and have fair treatment by. Equity for people and Papatūānuku is the ultimate goal, we’ve been distracted for so long but if we come back to our first point about the connectedness with Papatūānuku and you take reading this as a tohu (sign) to act on that for yourself, it’s all that we at Res.Awesome ask of you.
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