We have already reached Earth Overshoot Day this year: August 1st marks the date by which humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services has exceeded what Earth can regenerate in 2024. For the rest of the year, we will be living on resources borrowed from future generations. This is the sad message spread by the Global Footprint Network, an international research organization that calculates the date each year, using National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts data. These are produced by the Footprint Data Foundation with York University in Toronto and are based on comprehensive UN data sets as well as complementary data from the most recent scientific literature. The calculations are contrasting the world’s demand on nature (ecological footprint), including demand for food, timber, fibres (cotton) and space for urban infrastructure with the planet’s ability to replenish resources and absorb waste, including carbon dioxide emissions. Humanity has accumulated an enormous deficit over the past fifty years and is currently living as if 1.75 Earths were available. “This overshoot is possible because people can harvest more than is being renewed, thereby depleting natural capital,” the Global Footprint Network explains in a press release. “The consequences of ecological overspending are evident in deforestation, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, and the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which leads to more frequent extreme weather events and reduced food production.”

Last year, Earth Overshoot Day fell on August 2nd. However, even though the date seems to hold steady, this isn’t good news because the pressure on the planet keeps increasing, since damage from overshoot accumulates over time. Each year, the GFN recalculates the Ecological Footprint and biocapacity metrics to maintain consistency with the latest data and science which means that the annual dates of past Earth Overshoot Days change accordingly. Since 1971, the date has been creeping up the calendar every year, although at a slowing rate. The first overshoot day was on December 25, 1971. In the 90s, it was in October and in 2005, the date moved to the end of August. Since then, the date has been in the first few days of August, with an outlier in 2020, when the date arrived as “late” as August 16. The reason was a decline in resource usage in the first half of the year due to the pandemic-related lockdowns. The network also publishes national Earth Overshoot Days for individual countries, which are determined on the one hand by how many natural resources each country has available and on the other by the level of consumption. The data for this is still based on the 2023 edition of the National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts. Qatar ranks first and has used up the resources that can be regenerated in one year already on February 11. The country is followed by Luxembourg on February 20. The United States reached Earth Overshoot Day on March 14, Denmark on March 16 and Germany on May 2. However, not all countries have an overshoot day. If a country’s Ecological Footprint per person is smaller than global biocapacity per person, then the world would not use up the entire regenerative resource budget for the year within a year, if all humanity lived like them. The USA is particularly wasteful in its use of natural resources. If all people were as resource-hungry as US citizens, a total of five Earths would be required. Australia consumes 4.7 planets and Russia 3.3, while Germany needs 3 Earths. On the other hand, if everyone lived like people in India we would only need 0.7 Earths. (ab)