EIt’s about supply and demand. What does nature offer and how much of it does man use? Way too much, that’s for sure. The raw materials on earth cannot grow back as quickly as they are used up and turned into waste. The global ecological footprint, the human demand for biological resources within one year, is too large. So big that we don’t need one earth, but 1.75 earths this year. From this Thursday on we live on credit.
This means that the ecosystems need a whole year for the natural renewal of what we have used since the beginning of the year. Germany even had its Earth Overshoot Day on May 4th. If all countries were to economize like Germany, three earths would be necessary. With a way of life like in China, the world population would need 2.4 earths; if all people did business the way they do in the United States, they would need 5.1.
The size of a country does not matter
Every year, the Global Footprint Network calculates the day on which Earth Congestion is reached for each country. Small countries are just as disadvantaged as rich industrialized countries that live beyond their means in the truest sense of the word. Accordingly, Qatar and Luxembourg – at least mathematically – used up their resources particularly early in February, followed in March by large industrial nations such as Canada and the United States. Poor and underdeveloped, but also resource-rich countries, on the other hand, only have their dates very late in the year, such as Indonesia, Ecuador and Jamaica in December.
To calculate the Earth Overshoot Day, two variables are compared: on the one hand, the biological capacity of the earth to build up resources and absorb waste and emissions, and on the other hand, the need for forests, land, water, farmland and fishing grounds that people are currently using for consume their way of life and economy. Just 60 years ago the consumption was only 0.73 earths, so at the end of 1962 there were still natural reserves that were not used up. This changed for the first time in 1970, the first official Earth Overshoot Day fell on December 29th a good half century ago.
Since then, a trend has continued, the date is a little earlier almost every year. The fact that this can also change quickly was shown in the Corona year 2020: The Earth Overshoot Day slipped back three weeks in the calendar, from July 29, 2019 to August 22, 2020, because, among other things, less wood was used. And there was less CO2-Emissions produced from fossil fuels. A year later, the effect, which was mainly due to the lockdowns, had fizzled out again. The day fell again on July 29 in 2021.
According to the Federal Environment Agency, each individual can help ensure that Earth Overshoot Day occurs later in the year in the future: save energy, leave the car at home more often, buy seasonal food and durable products made from recycled materials, avoid waste. “If, for example, food waste alone were halved worldwide, Earth Overshoot Day would take place eleven days later,” writes Germany’s central environmental authority. And a halving of the CO2-Emission would shift the date by 89 days.