It's Earth Overshoot Day! even for Minnesota!

Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. In 2021, it falls on July 29.

Explore ecological footprint by country

Minnesota's 2015 ecological footprint, plus that for other states, can be found here. One of the critical elements of  an ecological footprint is a carbon footprint. Minnesota's carbon footprint is almost identical with the United States' average, but it's total ecological footprint exceeds the country's average.

where do our footprints lead?

Photo by J. Harrington

Once upon a time, Minnesota had a state planning agency and that agency, among other things, produced a report called Minnesota Milestones. We no longer  have the benefit of either the agency nor the tracking of progress against our stated common goals. Instead we have things like the Environmental Review Process which is finally beginning to consider if the state should consider greenhouse gas emissions as part of a proposed project's environmental impact.

We have heard reports that, at its September meeting, the Environmental Quality Board will consider deferring for a year implementation of recommendations to estimate project GHG  emissions, due to cost and complexity. We have not seen explanations of why or how such inclusion will be less costly a year from now and, we note, doing the estimations is not rocket science. There is abundant guidance available.

Minnesota has been failing to meet the climate goals of the 2007 legislation. Deferring implementation of GHG estimates as part of the environment review process can, in no way, improve that situation. In our opinion, the state should have started including GHGs in  any projects subject to environmental review after 2007. If it had, we might be a skosh closer to meeting the goals of that legislation and the reductions now required to maintain a habitable atmosphere on Earth suitable for humans to thrive would be more readily attainable.

[Traveler, your footprints]

By Antonio Machado
Mary G. Berg and Dennis Maloney

Traveler, your footprints

are the only road, nothing else.

Traveler, there is no road;

you make your own path as you walk.

As you walk, you make your own road,

and when you look back

you see the path

you will never travel again.

Traveler, there is no road;

only a ship's wake on the sea.

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