Earth Overshoot Day, from today humanity is in "ecological debt" with Planet Earth until next year

Today is the date calculated every year by the experts of the Global Footprint Network.The WWF complaint:«We cannot constantly live above the physical possibilities of our planet, we risk an ecological disaster»

From now until the end of 2023, humanity will live in ecological debt to the planet.Today, August 2, is Earth Overshoot Day, the day that indicates the exhaustion of the renewable resources that the Earth is able to offer within a calendar year.In recent decades this date has arrived ever earlier, a sign of the uncontrolled pace with which human beings have exploited the planet's resources without worrying about the consequences.In 1971, the first year to be calculated, Overshoot day fell on December 25.In 1980, November 16th.In 2000, September 25th.And so on.The date changes from year to year depending on the speed with which our planet's resources are exploited.The calculations are carried out by the Global Footprint Network, an international association that studies environmental accounting and society's ecological footprint.«Living constantly above the physical possibilities of our planet is a limited possibility in time, we risk an ecological disaster:the goods and services that are the basis of our societies and economies are all produced by functioning and healthy ecosystems", comments Eva Alessi, Head of Sustainability at WWF Italy.

Comparing countries and future scenarios

The ecological footprint varies - and greatly - from country to country.The one earning the black jersey is Qatar, which this year saw its Overshoot Day fall on February 10th.Things are slightly better for the United States, which ran out of natural resources on March 13, while for China the date moves to June 2.In Italy the day of Overexploitation of the Earth fell on May 15th.To put it another way, if the whole world adopted the lifestyle and consumption levels of Italians we would need the equivalent of 2.7 planets.According to the analyzes of the Global Footprint Network, there are two sectors that have the greatest impact in the Italian case:food consumption (responsible for a quarter of the total footprint) and transport, which account for 18%.In 2022, global Overshoot Day fell on July 28.This means that since last year we have gained five more days on the calendar.In the last five years the trend seems to have stabilized, even if it is difficult to establish the causes with certainty.Despite this, long-term projections are far from encouraging.If the levels of consumption and exploitation of natural resources continue to follow the current trend, by 2030 it is estimated that we could consume the equivalent of two planets every year.

How to postpone Overshoot Day

Summing up all the surveys conducted from the 1970s to today, the overall accumulated ecological debt amounts to 19 years of production of natural resources, borrowed from future generations.The good news is that we already know what actions can help move the date of Overshoot Day.Halving food waste in the world, for example, would give us 13 more days on the calendar.While reforesting 350 million hectares of land would move the date by 8 days.The most decisive contribution would come from the abandonment of fossil fuels, the main causes of the climate crisis.According to expert estimates, reducing CO2 emissions in energy production by 50% would allow us to postpone theOvershoot Day of more than three months (93 days).Alongside all this there are individual actions.In particular, specifies Alessi (WWF Italy), it is our diet that makes the difference:«If we replaced 50% of global meat consumption with plant-based foods, we would move Overshoot Day by 7 days (considering CO2 and land use);if we ate meat from organic or extensive farming we would gain another 5 days;If we bought 80% of our food locally, we would move the date by about 2 days."

On the cover:EPA/Yonhap | The wetlands of Eulsukdo Island, South Korea, restored after years of land overexploitation