Whether water, fertile floors or clean air – everything that enables our lives provides us with nature. But their regenerative power is limited. On July 24th, humanity exhausted its annual resource budget for 2025. From now on we live ecologically on credit – with growing risks for the environment, business and society. But the date is not a natural law: Numerous measures could move the Earth Overhoot Day significantly back in the future.
The natural resources of our planet are limited, but we consume them far beyond the sustainable level. Forests are cut down faster than they can grow back, fish stocks overuse, floors exhausted and more greenhouse gases emitted than the earth can compensate. In order to draw attention to this growing overuse, the Earth Overshoot Day – the Earth Overload Day – was introduced: it marks the day when humanity has used up its entire natural budget for the current year. The basis for this is a comparison: How many natural resources can the earth provide each year – and how many do we consume?
A new negative record
This year, the Earth Overshoot Day falls on July 24th and is therefore as early as never before, as scientists from the Global Footprint Network have determined. Humanity now uses nature around 1.8 times faster than its resources can regenerate. That means: We need 1.75 earth to cover our current consumption sustainably. The resulting ecological debt is growing from year to year. “We have now had the first quarter of the 21st century behind us and owe the planet at least 22 years of ecological regeneration, even if we would no longer cause any further damage,” warns Lewis Akenji from the Global Footprint Network.
The overuse of natural resources is one of the central drivers of climate change, loss of biodiversity, soil destruction and water shortages. It reinforces extreme weather events, threatens food safety and intensifies social inequalities. Even economically, the overhoot is not without consequences: all regions, cities and companies rely on natural resources – be it for energy, raw materials, food or water. When these become scarcer, the costs, supply problems increase and entire industry is under pressure.
What can be done against ecological over -indebtedness?
But not all countries strain the earth equally. If everyone would live as the average American, we would need five earth to meet resource consumption. The people in India, on the other hand, do only 0.7 earths, while the ecological footprint in Germany is around three earth. So how can resources be dealt with more sustainably and the Earth Overhoot Day moved significantly further back to the year?
For this purpose, the Global Footprint Network has collected over 100 measures – from the expansion of renewable energies to halving the food waste to the protection of tropical rainforests. Alone a global co2-According to calculations, the potential of moving the over 63 days back would have the potential of $ 100 per ton. If comparable programs such as the European “Green New Deal” were introduced worldwide, we could make up for another 42 days. But time runs: “Due to the nature of physics, an overhoot cannot be permanent. It is still possible to choose the first option – but only if politics, business and society are willing to take appropriate measures.
Source: Overhootday.org, WWF Germany
