We call it ‘Overshoot Day’ and it’s not a day to celebrate. It symbolizes the moment when humanity has consumed all that the earth can sustainably produce for this year. From now on, before the month of August begins, we will already be living with a resource deficit throughout 2022, according to the Global Footprint Network and WWF.
Demand exceeds the planet’s annual resources
In 2022 it has happened sooner than ever, in large part due to the demand for food, land, wood and new urban infrastructure to serve an ever-growing population.
The demand for these resources exceeds the Earth’s biocapacity, its ability to renew those resources, but that’s not all. This also tells us that we have exceeded the planet’s annual capacity to absorb waste products such as carbon dioxide.
“From January 1 to July 28, humanity has used as much of nature as the planet can renew in the entire year. That’s why July 28 is Earth Overshoot Day,” Mathis said. Wackernagel, President of the Global Footprint Network. “Earth has plenty of stock, so we can deplete Earth for some time, but we can’t overuse it forever. It’s like with money, we can spend more than we earn for some time until we run out of money.”
It would take 1.75 Earths to support the world’s population sustainably, according to the measure, which was created by researchers in the early 1990s.
We witness exhaustion
Over the last 50 years, this fateful time of year when we realize that we are and demand much more from the Earth than it can naturally offer us, has come earlier and earlier.
Organized and calculated by the Oakland, California-based sustainability think tank Global Footprint Network , Overshoot Day has come more than a month later than usual in 2020, due to global lockdowns imposed. due to Covid-19. But last year it was at the end of July, and this year it has happened earlier than ever, since the annual date was launched in 2006.
Yes indeed; the spending burden is not evenly distributed across the planet. If we all lived like Americans, the date would have been even earlier, experts say; probably in March. And worse still: if the world had the consumption habits of Qatar, the day would arrive on February 10, making the Arab country the worst criminal in the world for plundering the planet’s resources.
The two NGOs point the finger at the food production system and its ” considerable” ecological footprint. “In total, more than half of the planet’s biocapacity (55 percent) is used to feed humanity,” the two NGOs said. “Much of the food and raw materials are used to feed animals and animals that are then consumed,” said Pierre Cannet of WWF France.
What if we do something?
Based on scientific advice, they advocate reducing meat consumption in rich countries . “If we could cut meat consumption in half, we could bring the excess date forward by 17 days,” said Laetitia Mailhes of the Global Footprint Network. “Limiting food waste would push the date back 13 days, that’s not insignificant.”
Calendario del Overshoot day
- Year 2022: July 28
- 2021: July 29
- 2020: August 22
- 2019: July 29
- 2018: August 1
- 2017: August 3
- 2016: August 5
Referencia: Overshoot Day / Global Footprint Network y WWF.
