Earth overshoot day on August 13

Hyderabad: August 13 will be observed as Earth Overshoot Day, the date when humanity would have consumed this year what the earth can regenerate, including carbon dioxide absorption in the entire year, according to calculations by Global Footprint Network, an international organisation.

The consumption rate is increasing: Overshoot Day was on August 19 last year and September 25 in 2009. While many reasons contribute to the overshoot, a major factor is the consumption of fossil fuels which exhausts earth’s capacity to absorb carbon emitted due to burning of these fuels.

Biofuels play an important role in reducing this load. Biodiesel releases less unburned hydrocarbons into the atmosphere as compared to diesel, apart from releasing less of CO, particulate matter, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and nitrated PAH.

Sanjeev Gupta, chairman and MD of Universal Biofuels, a US-based company says, “The governments of AP and TS impose same amount of Vat on 5 per cent blended diesel as on plain diesel. As the blended version has just 95 per cent diesel the VAT should be imposed on just that. This will decrease the final price of biodiesel blended diesel.”