At the end of the month, humanity consumed as much nature as all ecosystems can renew this year. Glimmers of hope that less CO2 will be emitted as a result of the pandemic have faded.
Berlin – According to estimates by scientists, global resource consumption is approaching the level before the start of the corona pandemic.
This is based on calculations by the Global Footprint Network based in the USA and Switzerland. As a result, the so-called earth overload day in 2021 is this Thursday (July 29th). “From July 29th, we will be overexploiting the earth – we are taking resources from it that it will no longer be able to regenerate this year,” said the spokesman for the Germanwatch organization, Steffen Vogel, of the German press agency.
In the previous year, the “earth overload day” fell according to the calculations on August 22nd, more than three weeks later than 2019 – at that time it was already reached on July 26th. “That was actually an effect of Corona,” said Rolf Buschmann from the Association for the Environment and Nature Conservation Germany (BUND) of the dpa. Significantly fewer resources were used, especially in the first waves of the pandemic. “And that has a lot to do with the fact that we were in lockdown.”
For Germanwatch spokesman Vogel, the calculations confirm the fear that emissions will jump up again rapidly after the peak of the pandemic. “This effect is drastic: by 6.6 percent, according to the forecast of the Global Footprint Network, CO2 emissions will increase this year,” he said. At the same time, important biocapacity in forests is being destroyed. “The Amazon rainforest in particular is currently being destroyed at record speed”.
According to information from the WWF, the so-called earth overload day was still in September 20 years ago. Today, almost 60 percent of mankind’s ecological footprint can be traced back to carbon emissions. “We can change that by quickly transforming our economy towards sustainable, circular-based and carbon-free production methods. Germany can do that, ”says Christoph Heinrich, WWF’s nature conservation director.
According to the analysis of the Global Footprint Network, the national Earth Congestion Day was already reached at the beginning of May. “If all countries were to do business like Germany, we would not need one, but just three planets,” stressed Germanwatch spokesman Vogel. “Our way of life and economy is anything but sustainable.” Dpa
