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Press Releases
Ecological Footprint In The News
Articles by our staff
Coverage in Other Languages
Overshoot In The News
Press Releases
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New Report: Risks to Sovereign Bonds From Overuse of Natural Resources Need Greater Attention
Consideration of environmental risks and natural resource constraints is becoming increasingly important in assessing a nation’s credit risk, according to a new report by the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) and Global Footprint Network, in collaboration with leading financial institutions. On November 19, the key findings of the E-RISC: A New Angle on Sovereign Credit Risk report will be unveiled at an interactive event hosted by Bloomberg in London. Bloomberg will also now be offering Global Footprint Network’s country-level natural resource risk data (National Footprint Accounts) on all its terminals. The data will help users integrate natural resource risk into sovereign debt, economic growth and company valuation models.
Global Footprint Network, London, UK, November 12, 2012
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Resource Constraints in the Mediterranean Region: Exploring the Links Between Ecological and Economic Crises
Growing demands on the Mediterranean region’s ecosystems threaten the foundation of its social and economic well-being, the international think tank Global Footprint Network reports in a two-year study whose findings will be released at an international conference here on October 1. Global Footprint Network’s report, Mediterranean Ecological Footprint Trends, show an ever widening ecological deficit. Between 1961 and 2008, the most recent year data were available, growing population and consumption trends tripled the region’s demand for renewable resources and ecological services. By 2008, the region’s Ecological Footprint—the demand on Earth’s bioproductive land and sea areas—exceeded local available ecological assets by more than 150 percent. (more...)
Global Footprint Network, Oakland, CA, September 19, 2012
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August 22nd was Earth Overshoot Day
Humanity has surpassed nature’s budget for the year, and is now operating in overdraft, according to data from Global Footprint Network, an international research organization with offices in California and Europe. Earth Overshoot Day (from a concept devised by the UK think tank new economics foundation) helps conceptualize the gap between what nature can regenerate, and how much is required to support human activities. Similar to the way a bank statement tracks income against expenditures, Global Footprint Network tracks humanity’s demand for, and supply of, natural resources and ecological services. Global Footprint Network’s calculations show that in just over eight months, we have used up the resources and CO2 sequestration that the planet can sustainably provide this year. For the rest of the year, we will maintain our ecological deficit by depleting resource stocks and accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Global Footprint Network, Oakland, CA, August 22, 2012
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Ecological Footprint Creators Drs. William Rees and Mathis Wackernagel Win Prestigious Blue Planet
The Asahi Glass Foundation has selected Drs. William E. Rees (Canada), Mathis Wackernagel (Switzerland) and Thomas Lovejoy (USA) to receive this year’s Blue Planet Prize, the international environmental award, now in its 21st year. Two Blue Planet Prizes are awarded to individuals or organizations that make outstanding achievements in scientific research and its application in helping to solve global environmental problems. Global Footprint Network, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 17, 2012 Building on Rees’ earlier work on human carrying capacity, Wackernagel and Rees in the early 1990s developed the Ecological Footprint, the world’s premier resource accounting system, to track humanity’s demands on nature. The Ecological Footprint measures the area of productive land and water, or "biocapacity," required to produce the resources a human population consumes and to absorb its carbon waste.
Global Footprint Network, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 17, 2012
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Ecological Footprint Creators Drs. Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees Winners of Prestigious Kenneth E. Boulding Award
Drs. Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees, co-creators of the Ecological Footprint, will receive the 2012 Kenneth E. Boulding Award, the world’s top honor in the field of ecological economics. The biennial award is given to “outstanding individuals who have contributed original and seminal approaches that have furthered our understanding of the interfaces between the social, ecological, ethical, economic and political dimensions of our world,” the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) said in announcing the award.
Global Footprint Network, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 04, 2012
Ecological Footprint In The News
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Environmental Risks Threaten Government Debt Markets, Global Footprint Network & UNEP Say
The E-RISC, or Environmental Risk in Sovereign Credit Analysis tool can be used to incorporate natural resource risks into sovereign credit risk assessments. Investors want to better understand emerging risks in the bond market, the report said, because concerns that debt levels in Europe and the U.S. have shaken the perception government bonds are risk free.
Business Week, London, UK, November 19, 2012
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Environmental risk may be bad for your wealth
The environmental risks to which certain sovereign bonds are exposed could cost investors dearly, according to the new E-RISC study by Global Footprint Network and UNEP FI.
Financial News, London, UK, November 13, 2012
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Il debito ecologico - Luca Mercalli a Che tempo che fa
Luca Mercalli, il debito delle risorse fisiche del pianeta, la spending review ecologica dei Paesi del Mediterraneo e la fragilità dell'Italia.
, , October 07, 2012
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2012 Blue Planet Prize Winners Offer Hope for Greener World
“We’re facing a global storm, and the question is, is our boat ready?” Mathis Wackernagel asked the crowd gathered at the Japan Pavilion at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro Sunday. Wackernagel, who hails from Switzerland and is president of the Global Footprint Network, was being honored with a 2012 Blue Planet Prize, along with William Rees and Thomas Lovejoy. Rees, a Canadian, is a professor at the University of British Columbia, and Lovejoy, an American, is a professor of environmental science and policy at George Mason University, as well as a fellow at National Geographic.
National Geographic , Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 18, 2012
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Talking Happiness
The UN conference on “High Level Meeting on Wellbeing and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm,” organized by the nation of Bhutan, was especially noteworthy.The conference encompassed four days, of which the first, third, and fourth were working sessions tasked with producing an agenda and preliminary report. The second day was a more public event (still by invitation) in which I participated. Six hundred dignitaries, scholars, and NGO representatives crowded into a windowless UN meeting hall for six hours of speeches, comments, and questions—all focused on the government of Bhutan’s initiative to replace or augment GDP as a measure of national and global economic progress.
Post Carbon Institute: Richard Heinberg, New York, USA, April 06, 2012
Articles by our staff
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Op-Ed: Sovereign Environmental Risk
Environmental risks are potentially large enough to affect countries’ economies in ways that could influence their willingness or ability to repay sovereign debt. In addition, these risks vary widely across countries, including countries whose current credit ratings suggest similar levels of sovereign risk.
Project Syndicate, London, UK, October 26, 2012
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September 27th is Earth Overshoot Day: the day when human demand exceeded the regenerative capacity
Katsunori Iha, Research Economist, featured in Science Links Japan. Global Footprint Network announced that “Earth Overshoot Day” this year fell on September 27th, the day when human demand exceeded the regenerative capacity of the natural biosystem in a year. This means that we will maintain “ecological debt” with three months remaining to the end of the year. The indicator used is derived from the Ecological Footprint analysis, a method that is fast gaining attention in recent years. Here, I would like to give an overview of the Ecological Footprint analysis, and the significance of what it analyses, “Earth Overshoot Day”. Read articles in French; Japanese; Chinese
Science Links Japan, Japan, November 11, 2011
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Stomping on biodiversity: humanity's growing Ecological Footprint
Alessandro Galli, Global Footprint Network's Senior Scientist, featured in the Commonwealth Ministers article. In 2002, leaders of the world’s governments, recognising the threat posed by the high rate of species declines, committed to significantly halting the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. Yet, a 2010 study by Dr Stuart Butchart and others in the journal Science shows that leaders have failed to deliver on these commitments and have instead overseen alarming declines. In this article the author considers the urgent new initiatives to contain and reverse these global losses.
Commonwealth Ministers Reference Book 2010, London, UK, December 10, 2010
Coverage in Other Languages
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Il debito ecologico - Luca Mercalli a Che tempo che fa
Luca Mercalli, il debito delle risorse fisiche del pianeta, la spending review ecologica dei Paesi del Mediterraneo e la fragilità dell'Italia.
, , October 07, 2012
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Ab heute geht es an die Substanz
Seit Anfang des Jahres haben wir so viel Ressourcen verbraucht, wie die Erde in einem ganzen Jahr kompensieren kann. Das ist die Botschaft des Earth Overshoot Day, des Welterschöpfungstages, dessen Termin das US-amerikanische Global Footprint Network jährlich berechnet. Bis zum Jahresende lebe die Menschheit über ihre Verhältnisse, heißt es in einer Mitteilung des Netzwerks.
Taz: Die Tageszeitung, Berlin, Germany, August 23, 2012
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La humanidad ya ha agotado su presupuesto ecológico anual
La humanidad acaba de agotar su presupuesto ambiental para 2012, según los datos de la Global Footprint Network y la New Economics Fundation (NEF, por sus siglas en inglés), entrando desde el miércoles 22 en déficit ecológico.
El Mundo, Madrid, Spain, August 23, 2012
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Da oggi il pianeta viaggia in riserva
È l’Overshoot Day, il giorno in cui la Terra finisce le risorse dell’anno. Venticinque anni fa la data cadeva a dicembre, ora arriva ad agosto E gli studiosi avvertono: l’umanità avrebbe bisogno di una Terra e mezza è il momento di pensare al futuro e di invertire la tendenza
La Stampa, Roma, Italia, August 23, 2012
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Mercredi 22 août, l'humanité a déjà épuisé son crédit annuel de ressources naturelles
Mauvaise nouvelle pour la planète. Cette année, il n'aura fallu que 234 jours à l'humanité pour consommer toutes les ressources naturelles que la Terre peut produire en un an. Nous avons atteint, mercredi 22 août, le "Global Overshoot Day", le "jour du dépassement". En d'autres termes, nous vivrons à crédit jusqu'à la fin de l'année.
Le Monde, Paris, France, August 22, 2012
Overshoot In The News
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UN asks for action on nature loss, citing poverty
Governments must protect nature better in order to safeguard their countries' wealth, says the UN, as ministers meet for a day of talks on biodiversity.
BBC, London, September 22, 2010
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Boiling the Frog
Is America on its way to becoming a boiled frog? The hypothetical boiled frog is a useful metaphor for a very real problem: the difficulty of responding to disasters that creep up on you a bit at a time. And right now, both the economic and the environmental frogs are sitting still while the water gets hotter.
The New York Times, New York, July 12, 2009
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Uganda likely to lose all forest cover in 50 yrs
Uganda will lose its entire forest cover in the next 50 years if the government does not embark on immediate efforts to halt rapid deforestation. Forests and tree planting can help mitigate the effects of global warming by increasing carbon storage and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Reuters, Nairobi, July 09, 2009
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Let's get real about alternative energy
We need to introduce simple arithmetic into our discussions of energy.
CNN, U.S.A., May 13, 2009
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Earth Day and the Elephant in the Room
Well, another Earth Day has come and gone. And amid all the articles and blogs, symposia and TV specials about all the things we can do to save the planet, once again it was hard to find any substantive discussion of the single biggest threat to the environment. Namely, the staggering rise in global population.
The Huffington Post, U.S., April 24, 2009
