Earth (Overshoot) Day 2022

It’s a day to consider our planet and the impact we have on it. Earth Day, founded in 1970, is associated with the rise of the modern environmental movement as industries began to acknowledge (or be made to do so) their negative impacts on the planet. Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, published in 1962, was instrumental in this movement, and it still rings fresh and urgent today.

This year, Earth Day coincides, sadly, with Earth Overshoot Day for Ireland in 2022. This means that, if everyone globally had a similar lifestyle to those of us in Ireland, humanity would exceed the Earth’s capacity to provide for us by the 21st of April. As with Earth Day, Earth Overshoot is an opportunity for us to consider how to better use and distribute resources, and how to protect, maintain, or even regenerate our environment.

Consumer goods, especially textiles, have a huge impact, both in terms of resource use and environmental fallout due to chemical processes, transport logistics, and waste disposal.

Although I am just one maker in one corner of one small island nation, by making with locally sourced new / vintage / recycled natural materials, I’m trying to do better by our limited and precious resources and our fragile environment. How does your work, or your professional field, view or participate in Earth Day?

Recommended Resources

The Earth Day website has lots of resources and information about different environmental projects and different industries if you want to find out more about these issues, or if you want to take action in your own life and work.

The Earth Overshoot Day website also has a lot of content about how it works as a tool to not only measure our impact but also reveal the uneven distribution of wealth and resources globally.

The Sustainable Development Goals are another overlapping resource in considering our planet’s resources and their equitable distribution for the survival of humanity and protection of our habitat. One of the main differences from previous development campaigns is their universal application - not simply that “less-developed” countries must do better, but that “more-developed” nations must accept changes, in order that all can thrive more equally. My favourite are 8 and 12, could you guess?

If you can get your hands on a copy - try your local library! - I recommend reading Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. For something published sixty years ago, it’s still astonishingly insightful and relevant, and indeed motivating today.