19th August 2014, marks the date humanity’s Ecological Footprint has exceeded our planet’s “budget” for this year. Humanity utilizes natural resources to sustain all our daily activities. We also depend on these resources to absorb the waste materials we produce, such as carbon dioxide. The level of resources and ecosystem services required by humanity has been steadily increasing over the past few decades. In the 1960s, we were living within our ecological budget – utilizing natural resources at a rate no faster than Earth could provide each year. But this situation could not be sustained and we went into overshoot since the 1970s. In 2000, it took only nine months for humanity to use up our entire annual ecological budget. This year, it has taken us less than eight months to reach this point. To put this into calendar form, in 2000, Earth Overshoot Day landed on 1 October. This year, the date has been moved back to 19 August. This means that over the remaining months of 2014, all the resources we utilize will be eating into the Earth’s “capital”. In the long term, this will further reduce the Earth’s capital and its regenerative power – a vicious cycle that every one of us is driving. Although small, Hong Kong is playing a part in the devastation of our planet, and as such will not be spared from the consequences. The Hong Kong Ecological Footprint Report 2013 clearly shows that Hong Kong is over-consuming resources: if everyone on the planet lived the lifestyle we lead, we would need 2.6 Earths to fulfil our needs. This is clearly an unsustainable lifestyle. So, what does this mean for us? As Hong Kong imports almost everything we consume, we will inevitably become more vulnerable to fluctuations in commodity prices and supply disruptions that are beyond our control. To put this into focus – six out of the world’s seven billion people live in countries where populations demand more resources than the countries’ ecosystems can renew (which is called ecological deficit); and all of Hong Kong’s top 10 trade partners are in ecological deficit to different extents. It is highly doubtful that we will still be able to “buy our way out of trouble” in the future. Let’s think of the rainy days though the sun may still be there. Our daily activities contribute as much as 78 per cent to our Ecological Footprint, with the key drivers being clothing, food, energy and transportation. The actions and choices we make every day shape our Ecological Footprint, and everything counts – the means of transport which we use to commute, the seafood we eat, how we consume electricity, and whether we mix and match old clothing items instead of buying new ones.