Today is the overshoot day. It marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. On the newspaper this morning they say we cut too many forests, we eat too many animals we consume too many vegetables etc. It all make sense, but it is useful to clarify. In Italy forests passed from 4.000.000 ha to 11.000.000 in the last decades and we utilize only 1/4 of them. Forests have increased all over Europe, from Sweden to Italy; the growth rate on abandoned farmed land is about 800.000 ha / year according to FAO. In Italy we passed from 24.000.000 to only 12.000.000 ha of cultivated land and we are importing food from other continents, since we stopped cultivating (as in most of Europe). Thus, what we actually need is more cultivated land and less forests. Let’s see if all these environmental agencies include in the calculation of the ecological footprint also the land that someone else is cultivating for us and inform the public about this. It would be more “sustainable” to produce the food we need in our countries. With more than 7.5 billions of people on the earth and 70% more food to produce in the next 50 years it is not a bad idea.
