Center for Biological Diversity

For Immediate Release, July 27, 2018

Contact: Sarah Baillie, (520) 345-5708, sbaillie@biologicaldiversity.org

10,000 Endangered Species Condoms Handed Out for 'Earth Overshoot Day'

Special-edition Package Highlights Role of Safe Sex in Reducing Ecological Footprints

TUCSON, Ariz.— More than 10,000 free Endangered Species Condoms will be given away next week by the Center for Biological Diversity for Earth Overshoot Day. The condoms will be distributed by volunteers in the 10 U.S. cities with the largest carbon footprints to encourage people to have safe sex as part of reducing their ecological impact.

The colorful condom packages feature species threatened by population growth and catchy slogans. For Earth Overshoot Day, the Center is partnering with the Global Footprint Network for a special-edition design that says: “Before your seduction, think footprint reduction.”

Earth Overshoot Day is the day humanity exhausts the resources the planet can replenish in a year. This year the day falls on Aug. 1, five months too soon and the earliest since the world first went into ecological overshoot.

“As human population continues to rapidly grow, we clearcut trees, burn fossil fuels and bulldoze wild spaces. The Earth can’t keep up,” said Sarah Baillie, the Center’s Endangered Species Condoms coordinator. “We see evidence of this in shrinking habitat, the global climate crisis and crashes in wildlife populations. We’re blowing through nature’s capital, and wildlife and the planet are suffering for it.”

In New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Dallas, Detroit, Philadelphia, San Jose, Calif., Houston and Washington, D.C., volunteers will hand out Endangered Species Condoms to raise awareness of overshoot. These are the 10 cities with the largest carbon footprints in the United States.

The Global Footprint Network calculates Earth Overshoot Day by dividing the amount of ecological resources the planet generates each year by humanity’s ecological footprint (the amount of land and water needed to produce the resources we consume and absorb the waste we create). That number is multiplied by 365 to determine the number of days that the Earth’s resources will last at humanity’s current rates of consumption. This year the planet’s resources lasted 213 days, or until Aug. 1. The rest of the year is in “overshoot.”

“If everyone lived like Americans, we’d use five Earths,” said Baillie. “Since we only have one Earth, this clearly isn’t sustainable. Our condoms are a striking way to start the conversation about how each of us can help move the date.”

In addition to the Endangered Species Condoms, the Center’s Population and Sustainability program promotes a wide range of solutions to address overshoot, including reducing meat consumption, developing wildlife-friendly renewable energy sources, and universal access to birth control and family planning.

Footprint reduction

Condom package designed by Lori Lieber with artwork by Shawn DiCriscio. © 2018. This image is available for media use.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.6 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

www.biologicaldiversity.org

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