UK’s Ecological Debt Day Was April 16

The New Economics Foundation, based in the UK, has published a report called the “ecological debt day calendar” (.pdf). The calendar shows the date in a typical calendar year that a country would have used up all of their natural resources had they relied solely on themselves. As consumption increases, the ecological debt day decreases. In 1961, the UK could go for 52% (or until July 9) of the year without relying on resources from the rest of the world. This decreased to 36% of the year (May 14) in 1981 and 29% of the year (April 16) in 2006.

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