Earth Overshoot Day Is Coming Sooner And Sooner

Today (July 28) marks this year’s Earth Overshoot Day, the day that humanity’s demand for ecological resources exceeds the resources Earth can regenerate within that year.

As Statista’s Felix Richter details below, over the decades, the ecological and carbon footprint of humans has gradually increased, all while Earth’s biocapacity, i.e. its ability to regenerate resources has diminished significantly.

That has led to Earth Overshoot Day arriving earlier and earlier, moving from December 30 in 1970 to July 28 this year.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Only in the pandemic year of 2020 did it move back to August 22, before moving forward to 2019’s date – July 29 – again in 2021.

“There is no benefit in waiting to take action,” Global Footprint Network CEO Laurel Hanscom said in a statement in 2021.

“The pandemic has demonstrated that societies can shift rapidly in the face of disaster. But being caught unprepared brought great economic and human cost. When it comes to our predictable future of climate change and resource constraints, individuals, institutions and governments who prepare themselves will fare better. Global consensus is not a prerequisite to recognizing one’s own risk exposure, so let’s take decisive action now, wherever we are,” she added.

The concept of Earth Overshoot Day was first conceived by Andrew Simms of the UK think tank New Economics Foundation, which partnered with Global Footprint Network in 2006 to launch the first global Earth Overshoot Day campaign. WWF, the world’s largest conservation organization, has participated in Earth Overshoot Day since 2007. To find out more about the calculations behind Earth Overshoot Day, please click here.

So whos’ worst of all?

As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz notes, if the citizens of the world lived like those of the United States, the resources of more than five full planets would be needed to satisfy the global need for resources every year.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Industrialized nations have the biggest share in pushing the date forward. Qatar, Luxembourg and Bahrain are actually even bigger offenders than the U.S. The lifestyle in these countries would use up between 5.2 and 9.0 Earths if the whole world lived it, but because of the small size of their populations, they actually have less of an influence on global resource depletion than bigger developed countries like the U.S.

Other major industrialized nations in Europe and Asia would use between 2.6 and four Earths if their lifestyle was universal. Chinese living standards meant 2.4 Earths would be used up.

Indonesians, with a local Earth Overshoot Day on Dec 3, 2022, were about on track of using up exactly the resources allotted to Earth citizens.

People in several countries also used up less than their allotment of resources, for example in India, where the equivalent of 0.8 Earths were used annually.

Emissions, but also the use of resources like wood, fish and land for crops are among the things counted in when calculating Earth Overshoot Day.