This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Tuesday, Aug. 20, was Earth Overshoot Day. According to the World Wildlife Fund and the Global Footprint Network, this is "the date by which our resource consumption for a given year exceeds the planet's ability to replenish. In the first eight months of 2013, we have exhausted the natural resources that should last all year.… Overshoot Day is a bold indication that now is the time to fight harder to create a world where we all live within our ecological limits."

An environmental call to arms isn't a conspiracy, and it certainly isn't part of a political agenda, although denial is a large part of the Republican agenda. Isn't it time to acknowledge that virtually everything 7 billion humans do has a negative effect on the planet?

Anthropogenic global warming and resource depletion are damaging the Earth faster than she can heal. Curbing our appetite for resource gluttony would be a huge step toward stopping the destruction. Each one of us has a responsibility to do something, but some people won't even recycle their plastic water bottles.

Denial is easy, and taking even small steps toward saving our only planet is just too inconvenient.

David E. Jensen

Holladay