For the rest of the year, humanity will be trashing the planet. That’s right, today is Earth Overshoot Day. Scientists at Global Footprint Network calculate that as of today, we’ve burned through the natural resources it would take a year for the Earth to replenish. For the next 4 months and 22 days, we’ll be chipping away at the long-term resilience of our life-supporting ecosystems.

If you suspect paranormal activity in your neighborhood, call the Ghostbusters. But what if the kind of activity disturbing your peace is growth mania? Who can you call?

Today is World Environment Day. The United Nations established the day and informs us it’s the most important day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment. It strikes me as odd the theme for this year’s World Environment Day is the illegal trade in wildlife. Themes like this are woefully inadequate in the face of today’s pressing crises, amounting to little more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Yes, our world’s biodiversity is critical, but illegal trade is a tiny fraction of even that problem. The real problem is the juggernaut of never-ending expansion in the scale of the human footprint. We are laying siege, not just to wildlife, but to the entirety of our “environment.” . . .