The date has held steady for the last decade but more needs to be done to protect our planet.
ADVERTISEMENTHumanity has burned through Earth’s annual budget for resources in just over seven months.
Known as Earth Overshoot Day, 1 August marks the date on which we’ve used up all the resources that the planet can regenerate in one year.
“Overshoot will end," says Lewis Akenji, a Global Footprint Network board member. "The question is how: by design or by disaster. A planned transition gives us better security than ceding to the whims of a planet thrown off balance by overshoot.”
This year’s date is months earlier than the first Overshoot Day on 25 December 1971.
In the last decade the date has held fairly steady, but we are still blowing through our annual budget nearly 5 months early. The remainder of the year humanity lives from overuse, further depleting the biosphere.
There’s a lot that needs to change to stop humanity from burning through nearly two planets worth of resources every 12 months.
How is Earth Overshoot Day calculated?
Overshoot Day is calculated using UN data to work out each country’s ecological footprint and the ‘biocapacity’ of the planet. Biocapacity is Earth’s ability to produce renewable resources and absorb waste, while the ecological footprint measures demand on nature including consumption of resources and emissions.
Global warming caused by vast amounts of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels is driving the deficit, according to the Global Footprint Network. The organisation says that achieving a 43 per cent cut in global emissions by the end of the decade would require Overshoot Day to be pushed back by 19 days every year between now and 2030.
Which countries are consuming the most resources?
Some countries are burning through resources faster than others.
If everyone on the planet lived like people in the US, Overshoot Day would fall on 14 March. For Belgium, it would be 23 March, France 7 May and Spain 20 May.
The worst offenders were Qatar which would mark the occasion on 11 February and Luxembourg where Overshoot Day would land on 20 February.
If everyone lived like people in India, however, there would no longer be an overshoot with just 0.7 planets worth of resources being consumed every year.
What can we do to ?
The Global Footprint Network says that cutting CO2 emissions from fossil fuels by 50 per cent would move the date by three months.
Other national policies like creating 15-minute cities - where everything you need on a day-to-day basis can be reached by walking or cycling - as well as introducing a four-day work week could help push back the date.
Encouraging green transport use could also help to move Overshoot Day later in the year. Replacing 50 per cent of air travel with high-speed rail would move it back by 1.8 days.
