Dear Mr. Prime Minister and all those it may concern,
Hi, my name is Amelia Penney-Crocker. I’ve written you 38 letters about the climate crisis. One a week, since December. In one of my first letters (letter 4 to be precise) I spoke about our carbon budget. But here I am, almost a year later with a similar message.
Not that long ago we hit Earth Overshoot Day. In case you don’t know, Earth Overshoot Day is the day humanity spends all its budgeted natural resources for the year. We have now used as much naturel resources as the earth can renew in a year. This ominous day was slightly later this year because of the pandemic. But that is not a cause for celebration if we just go back to our old ways next year.
Earth Overshoot Day also represents something bigger. We (the people in the developed world) do not know how to limit our use of resources when nature demands it. We DO NOT have unlimited resources, and acting as though we do has major costs for both us and the rest of the life on the planet. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: OUR CARBON BUDGET SHOULD BE AS IMPORTANT AS OUR FINACIAL BUDGET. When your government makes a decision you considers cost, right? You look at your budget and say, ‘can we afford this?’. You must start doing the same thing with the carbon budget and our natural resource budget.
We as a nation, and as a globe, should we working to eliminate Earth Overshoot day. We must become more conscious of the resources we use, and the carbon we spend. The consequences of not doing so are already dire and will only become more so. California is on fire, a massive hurricane is hitting Louisiana, droughts are getting worse around the world and here in Canada. Things will only get worse the longer we wait to take action.
This. Is. A. Crisis.
Earth Overshoot Day is just one example of our lack of foresight, insight, and empathy. It should be a day our mourning and a day of anger at how we got here. People are suffering because we cannot restrain ourselves. Nature is suffering. And soon, we will also be suffering.
I hope you have a wonderful day!
Amelia Penney-Crocker