Biocapacity Overshoot What Colcom Foundation’s Research Reveals

One of the most striking datasets cited by Colcom Foundation involves not just carbon emissions but total ecological footprint, a broader measure of how much biologically productive land and water a population consumes. By this measure, the United States has been in severe ecological overshoot for decades.

Understanding the Deficit

In 1970, the U.S. was already consuming 227 percent of its available biocapacity. By 2020, that figure had risen to approximately 240 percent, even as per capita biocapacity use fell by more than 20 percent. The foundation’s conclusion is direct: every bit of additional overshoot in those fifty years came from population growth, not from people consuming more individually.

The Colcom Foundation also presents the numbers adjusted for biodiversity targets. The 30×30 initiative, which aims to protect 30 percent of U.S. land for other species, would place effective biocapacity utilization at around 341 percent in 2020. Under the Half Earth framework, which proposes reserving half of the planet’s surface for wildlife to preserve at least 80 percent of species, the figure would rise to 478 percent.

Through their grants, they have supported many organizations, such as the Center for Biological Diversity, which works towards protecting endangered species, and the Sierra Club Foundation, which advocates for clean energy and climate solutions. These grants have helped to advance important causes and support organizations that strive to make a difference.

Wildlife in Decline

Colcom Foundation pairs these calculations with wildlife trend data. Wild vertebrate animal populations have roughly halved during the same period that the human population doubled. The North American bird population dropped from 10 billion to 7 billion between 1970 and today. Of vertebrate land animals alive today, wild animals account for only about 1 percent of total biomass, compared to 32 percent humans and 67 percent livestock.

The foundation presents this data not as a counsel of despair but as a basis for policy. Colcom Foundation believes that acknowledging population growth as a driver of ecological overshoot is a prerequisite for any serious effort to reverse these trends. See related link for more information.

Learn more about Colcom on https://www.colcomfdn.org/