Tom Buller on Overshoot Day
It certainly feels like the weather is continuing to get hotter and weirder. After breaking record after record for the hottest day, we approach a different but equally vital marker to pay attention to. This month, we reached Earth Overshoot Day, on August 2nd, 2023. For those of you who are unfamiliar with “Overshoot Day,” it is the day of the year when a calculation of the world’s usage of resources is projected to overshoot the ecosystem’s ability to regenerate. After that point in the year, we are robbing resources from our descendants, and if you are curious about how this is calculated, check out https://www.overshootday.org/.
A slight bit of good news is that Overshoot Day 2023 is projected to be two days later in the year 2023 than it was in 2022. That movement is more of a blip than a trend, though. In 2020, when travel and the economy were disrupted due to COVID-19, Overshoot Day was on August 16th, two whole weeks later than it is this year. In 1982, Overshoot Day was in December, and over the past 40 years, we have reached it earlier and earlier in the year. The picture is even more bleak if you look at National Overshoot Day estimates for the United States, where National Overshoot Day in 2023 was all the way back on March 13th. Ouch.
Here at the Kansas Rural Center, we work tirelessly to safeguard and rebuild the health of the land and its people through research, education, and advocacy. We continue to bring positive change to communities and agriculture across the state through our many grant-funded programs. Some of our areas of work include:
advocating for soil health and resource conservation at the state and federal levels
empowering local grassroots efforts for Kansans to become civically engaged in supporting their communities
educating beginning farmers and ranchers to ensure a healthy, productive, and economically viable food system for the future
encouraging sustainable local economies to keep small farmers on their land for generations to come
I am humbly asking you, dear reader, to support our mission for a more livable future by contributing to the work of Kansas Rural Center. We use your generous contributions for many aspects of our work not covered by grants and other funding sources, such as mileage, office upgrades, event materials, scholarships for those eager to learn, and much more. Your gifts help KRC create the most effective impact as we strive to conserve the resources of our beautiful state, push overshoot day further away, and create a more equitable and livable future for all!
We alone cannot do everything. While we encourage everyone to adopt practices like shopping local, supporting farmers who use sustainable practices, using less energy, riding a bike instead of driving, cutting back on unnecessary waste, and even simple things like turning off the lights when leaving a room. The challenges we face are greater than what any individual can fix with daily changes in their lives. These things are great ways to feel like you are making a personal impact, but we need to reach out further than ourselves to create systemic change to really move Overshoot Day back to the end of the year on December 31st.
Overshoot Day is a direct challenge to Kansans and everyone across our planet. Your support and contributions to the Kansas Rural Center will allow us to continue doing the necessary work that’s been our mission for over 40 years. Join us in working toward meaningful and sustainable change for the betterment of our state and our world.
And please, turn the lights off on your way out.