It's About Time

I've been thinking a lot about time lately. Some say "time is money," but the downturn in our economy makes even that a rather abstract statement.

I received an email this morning, bright and early, that reminded me that Bush has only 99 more days til he leaves office. "99 bottles of beer on the wall," it began. "Bush Countdown Clocks" are counting down all over the country, maybe the world. That is a rather short-term clock, but counting down with urgency.

Earlier this week, I learned about the National Debt Clock, a longer term clock. Hillary Clinton even referred to it in her speech in Scranton, Pennsylvania today. She said that it was requiring another digit now. I had just read in the BBC business news as well that the National Debt Clock in New York had run out of digits to record the government's current debt of about 10.2 trillion dollars. The organization that runs the sign said it planned to update the clock next year by adding two digits so it could track debt up to a quadrillion dollars. The graphic below shows what the clock looks like, though it isn't being updated in real time.

On a larger scale, possibly, I was introduced to another time concept only last week. It's called Earth Overshoot Day and it is more related to the calendar year. We actually passed it on September 23 this year. Earth Overshoot Day moves earlier each year rather than occurring on a set day. Here's why.

Earth Overshoot Day marks the day in each year that humanity has used all the resources nature will generate in that particular year, according to Earth Footprint Network data. Earth Overshoot Day thus marks the day of each year when humanity begins living beyond its ecological means. Beyond that day, we move into the ecological equivalent of deficit spending. At that point, we are utilizing resources at a rate faster than what the planet can regenerate in a calendar year. Globally, we now now require the equivalent of 1.4 planets to support our lifestyles each year. But we only have one Earth. The result is that our supply of natural resources -- like trees and fish -- continues to shrink, while our waste, primarily carbon dioxide, accumulates.

Humanity first went into overshoot in 1986. Before that time, the global community consumed resources and produced carbon dioxide at a rate consistent with what the planet could produce and reabsorb. By 1996, humanity was using 15 percent more resources in a year than the planet could supply, with Earth Overshoot Day falling in November. Last year, Overshoot Day was in October. This year, more than two decades since we first went into overshoot, because we are now demanding resources at a rate of 40 percent faster than the planet can produce them, Earth Overshoot Day has moved forward to September 23. Humans now require the resources of 1.4 planets, for example to be able to water the playgrounds of a golf in the middle of the desert, or to light up Las Vegas, or to ski in the desert in Dubai or to surf indoors in Japan, or even to cruise around in our SUVs.

This brings us to a final clock, the Doomsday Clock. The concept should be frighteningly clear to those of us from the "Duck and Cover" generation. As of this year, the Doomsday Clock reads five minutes to midnight. The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic clock face maintained since 1947 at the University of Chicago. Midnight represents "catastrophic destruction." It used to be more associated with global nuclear war, but now includes climate change and misuse potential for inventions such as nanotechnology as well. The clock was started at seven minutes to midnight. The clock hands have been set eighteen times.

To put things into further perspective, we have those who believe the earth is only 5000 years old, which can not really explain genetic mutation of viruses, evolution of life, carbon dating to measure age or global warming (which some of the same people do not believe in either.) Some such people are even running for high public office. The bottom line is that we are running out of time, and every decision we make needs to take into account not so much just money, but also time, immediate and distant.