On May 10th, Germany reaches its national earth overload day. This day marks the date on which all natural resources that were mathematically available to us for the entire year have been used up. For the rest of the year we use more energy and resources than can be regenerated during this period. We live with it at the expense of future generations. If the entire world lived like we do, humanity would need almost three Earths. Environmental organizations are calling for people to reduce their ecological footprint.
Every year, the Global Footprint Network organization calculates how quickly we humans use up the resources that the Earth can produce or regenerate within a year. From this she calculates the so-called earth overload day, the day on which humanity has used up all the resources that were available to us for the current year. Until the end of the 1960s, we used less than the earth could regenerate in a year. In 1970, global earth overload day was reached on December 29th and has been moving further forward ever since. In 2025 it fell on July 24th – earlier than ever before.
Lives at the expense of future generations
But many industrialized nations, including Germany, exploit the earth even more than the global average: In Germany, we have already exhausted our share of natural resources this year on May 10th. “In Germany, the main impact is the far too high energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the transport sector, as well as our high daily land consumption and factory farming,” explains the German Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND). “In addition, there is contamination of soil, air and groundwater.”
If every person consumed as much per capita as in Germany, it would take 2.8 earths to cover demand. But since we only have one earth at our disposal, we live at the expense of future generations: we use so much groundwater that the level continues to sink, we cut down more trees than can grow back and we overuse agricultural land. The consequences of this development are already being felt today and are threatening not only numerous animal and plant species, but also human health and food security. “If we continue like this, we will destroy our planet and our natural resources,” says BUND chairman Olaf Bandt.
Reduce the ecological footprint
In order to use the resources available to us more sustainably and to postpone the earth overload day again, the BUND lists a number of immediate measures, including a general speed limit on motorways, attractive and social support programs for heating and building modernization, the expansion of renewable energies and e-mobility on rail and road, and strengthening the circular economy in which waste is reduced, reused and recycled. “With electricity from sun and wind, heat pumps and light, small and economical electric cars, we create independence, planning security and climate protection,” says Bandt.
The WWF also shows ways to effectively reduce our ecological footprint. In the area of nutrition, for example, a stronger focus on plant-based products and a reduction in food waste could save valuable resources. Urban planning that reduces dependency on cars and a higher CO2 price could also push back the earth’s overload day.
Compared to the previous year, Germany has already made a small progress: in 2025, the national earth overload day was on May 3rd. This year we managed to get by with our resources for at least a week longer.
Source: Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation Germany (BUND); WWF