1. You have suerely heard it a lot to consume less, because the Earth is overburdened. Well, who thinks that the overshoot is caused by too high individual consumption (and refers to Overshoot Day as „overconsumption day” for this reason), doesn’t understand ecology!

2. The ecological footprint of the average person is the same as it was in 1970.[1] Moreover, there are positive changes behind this unchanging average: the ecological footprint of the well-off countries is decreasing, and that of the poor countries is increasing, which allows for a higher quality of life.[2]

3. If the ecological footprint of the average person hasn’t increased, then why do we overburden the Earth by 170% now, which only started in 1970? Has the Earth shrunk by 40% in half a century? In a way, it has…

4. Before anyone would think about some cosmic catastrophe, let’s be clear: the „per capita Earth” has shrunk by 40%. And the reason is that human population has more than doubled since 1970.[3]

5. Today, there is only 1.63 gha biocapacity for a person, which is little more than half of the average global per capita ecological footprint.[4] Moreover, there is less and less each year due to the ongoing population explosion.

The eco-dictators (if there would be such) who don’t care about population could only end the global ecological overshoot by forcing everyone into global destitution.

6. Those who hope that the scientific-technological development will solve everything, will be gravely disappointed: in half a century, all science and technology could achieve was that th per capita biocapacity of Earth only decreased by 40% and not more.[5] (They couldn’t stop its decline, and are far from turning it into growth, even by relying on nonrenewable resources)

7. Humanity overburdens the Earth, today at a level of 170%. This means that we have used up its yields by July 29. In other words, from this day till the end of the year, we will use up the natural capital that has bee accumulating over millions of years. This is why the forests, soils and wildlife is disappearing, freshwater is dwindling, the climate is going nuts, and poison and filth floods the waters and the lands.

8. If everyone on Earth lived like the Hungarians, for example, then the humanity would have come out of the ecological crisis by the turn of the century. If everyone followed the consumption and reproductive pattersns of the Hungarians since the very beginning of the calculation of ecological footprint (1961), then there would only be about 3 billion people on Earth, which wouldn’t be overburdened by everyone living in decent prosperity.[6]

9. So the ecological crisis is caused by overpopulation, which is worsening with the ongoing population expkosion: every year, the human population of Earth increases by 80 million. It’s not that people consume too much individually, it’s just that the „per capita Earth” is shrinking below the level of global destitution.

10. Why is there a population explosion? Well, it’s not like anyone wanted it, it’s just a taboo, so misconceptions are rampant in this topic. Almost half of the pregnancies are unintended by the couples.[7][8] Every day, 100.000 children are born whom their parents didn’t want. At least 214 million fertile wives would desperately want to use contraception, but they don’t have the rights, knowledge and means to it.[7]

11. The UN has alredy declared contraception a human right back in 1968,[9] and on the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo, 179 countries signed a Programme of Action. It was supposed to be completed in 20 years, but unfortunately it wasn’t, so it was extended.[10] This was translated to Hungarian by the BOCS Foundation, which is the Hungarian member of the Inspire European NGO alliance since 2006. The ICPD+25 world conference to renew the Programme of Action will be held in Nairobi.[11]

12. Moreover, the goal of securing universal access to contraception to all was also among the Millennium Development Goals (MDG 5.B) The UN General Assembly declared in 2005 that „an unmet need for family planning undermines achievement of several other goals”.[12]

13. In 2015, the UN declared 17 Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, where universal access to contraception is featured in the topic of health, and of women’s equality as well (SDG 3.7 and 5.6). Because even if there was no ecological crisis, overpopopulation, poverty, violence, so even in an ideal world, it is the right of every child to be conceived to prepared parents, as a result of a responsible decision.

14. Numerous examples prove that access to contraception leads to exceptionally fast reductions in birthrates. Globally, there is a huge umnet need for contraception, both in the developing, and developed countries.[7][8] Wherever women can have a word in ther fate, birthrates are low, even if they cannot study. And educated women plan even less children.[13]

15. So what’s the key to move the Ecological Overshoot day back to the end of the year? Compassion! To have mercy on those who lack contraception!

The reason is because the ecological crisis is caused by a humanitarian catastrophe: that the without the rights to-, knowledge about, and means of contraception, in every second, 3 women cry out desperately that „I’m pregnant!”.

16. This might be the only point where the interests of the poor and the rich are the same. Offer your help for the sake of yourself, for the sake of the poor, and most importantly, for the sake of the children to be born, whom would otherwise be dragged out to Earth before their time, in a forced march, unprepared, as an accident, or for thousands of other reasons.

17. According to the esimates of the UN’s Population Program, the sum needed for the solution can be collected even if only every 30th person helps those lacking contraception by 10 euros (spending it on programs making it available). Can you convince at least one of 30 of your friends? Who break the taboo of population as Climate Heroes, don’t just shave off a few percents of the ecological footprints by insignificant greening, but 100% of it. Because by continuously preventing an unintended pregnancy, they prevent a lifetime’s worth of ecological footprint (moreover, potentially multiple lifetimes’ worth of it).

18. The beneficial effects of sum that makes contraception available are 120 times more potent than conventional charity.[14] It is the most effective humanitarian aid, the most effective form of climate-, and environmental protection,[15] the key of getting out of poverty,[16] that of womens’s equality, the healthy development of children, and of peace and security.

19. The more unintended pregnancies we can prevent, the less people will suffer less; less people will be subject to destructive heat waves, starvation, epidemics and the increasing risk of wars, and the severity of these calamities will be lighter as well. Contraception is the best way to mitigate the climate crisis, and also the key to adapting to the worsening conditions.

20. Let’s push back the date of Ecological Overshoot Day to the end of the year! One of the points of the Global Footprint Network’s MoveTheDate campaign serves this goal as well. Join the Climate Heroes, carbon offset your lifestile using QFPC™, with which you can also help the hundreds of millions of women who lack contraception.

Live as you wish to, just break the taboo with compassion! Preventing a lifetime’s worth of ecological burden, you can float as an angel, not weighing down on the Earth. https://bocs.cf/

[1] https://www.footprintnetwork.org/our-work/
[2] http://data.footprintnetwork.org/#/sustainableDevelopment?cn=all&type=BCpc,EFCpc&yr=2016
[3] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/sp.pop.totl
[4] http://data.footprintnetwork.org/#/
[5] http://footprintnetwork.org/
[6] https://climenews.com/a-wwf-vakon-hibaztatja-a-magyarokat
[7] https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/adding-it-up-contraception-mnh-2017
[8] https://www.contraceptioninfo.eu/node/71
[9] http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/theme/rights/
[10] https://www.unfpa.org/publications/international-conference-population-and-development-programme-action
[11] https://www.unfpa.org/press/nairobi-summit-advance-icpd-programme-action
[12] https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/opinion/l12kristof.html
[13] http://en.unesco.org/gem-report/sites/gem-report/files/girls-factsheet-en.pdf
[14] http://res.cloudinary.com/bocs/raw/upload/v1557231981/population_assessment_-_kohler_behrman_0_dumwz7.pdf (6.o)
[15] http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa7541/pdf
[16] https://afrika.bocs.eu

Gyula I. Simonyi

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Happiness planning (contraception) is the most efficient way of protecting the environment and the climate, helpint the emergence from poverty, improving public safety, achieving peace and gender equality, ensuring the happiness of children, and preventing unemployment and mass migration. Still, only a fraction of the aids for developing countries goes for this, primarily due to the ignorance and prudery of the public opinion. So the money is already there, we just need to realize our own interests, which is one with that of the poor, as everyone wins with providing the right, know-how, and means of happiness planning. The global education of BOCS Civilization Planning Foundation facilitate this.

The BOCS Civilization Planning Foundation since 1975 for a sustainable civilization. – President: Gyula I. Simonyi

Its main goal is promoting a sustainable love-civilization, supporting environmental protection, the peace movement, and poor countries, as well as global education in Hungary, Africa, India, and other poor countries.

In 1998, Gyula I. Simonyi, the president of BOCS was invited to the Balaton Group, the annual meeting of the global network of sustainability researchers that started out in 1982. The BOCS Civilization Planning Foundation acquired the qualification of public benefit in 1999, for its environmental protection and informative activity. Our projects, global education, Indian and African partnerships help Hungary to fulfill its international obligations to support poor countries, the Cairo Programme of Action, and the Millenium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals, thereby contributing to enforcing human rights, and protecting nature.

Since 2006, the BOCS Civilization Planning Foundation is a member of the EuroNGOs.org European network that supports the Programme of Action of the UN’s 1994 International Conference on Population and Development that is still in effect. It is the Hungarian member of the European network of eurASP.org. In 2009, BOCS received the MTA’s (Hungarian Scientific Academy) MÖTE (Scientific Association of Hungarian Ecologists) award for popularizing Ecology.

BOCS is the first Eastern European member of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize winner ICBL (since 1995).

Gyula I. Simonyi president, mathematician, economist, catechist, IT, system analyst, sustainability researcher and lecturer The BOCS already appeared in 1993 in this address database compiled by the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center:

Kinga Kirinovics board member, horticulturist, medicinal and aromatic plants	Andrea Kováts sustainability expert, humanities	Gábor Rozsics board member, engineer	Beáta Szabó board secretary, international relations specialist, childfree advocate, English teacher

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