July 24 marks the day where humanity has used up nature’s entire budget of ecological resources for the year. That’s according to the international sustainability organization Global Footprint Networkand York University in Toronto, Canada.
The day, which is observed annually, comes just over a week earlier than — mainly due to the fact that oceans can absorb less CO2 than previously reported.
We are overconsuming by depleting nature’s capital faster than it can replenish, which is visible in , loss of and the accumulation of carbon emissions in the atmosphere. And it is part of a trend that started back in the early 1970s.
Mathis Wackernagel, co-founder of the Global Footprint Network, told DW that using too many resources is driving many “environmental ills,” and that regularly using more than the planet can naturally reproduce has a cumulative effect.
“Even if we keep it at the same level, we increase the ecological debt that the world endures,” he said, adding that the ensuing “debt is measurable.”
Overconsumption is a global problem
, and were first in hitting their respective country overshoot days back in February. The was not far behind. If everyone on the planet consumed like people in the US, resources would be depleted by March 13. and land on May 3, and on May 23, on July 2.
Wackernagel said high income “typically leads to higher resource consumption,” but added that it is not the only driver.
Qatar, with a desert climate with low annual rainfall and intensely hot, humid summers, relies heavily on air conditioning powered by .
“They have easy access to fossil fuels, so fossil fuel use is cheap and that has a big footprint,” he said, adding the country also uses up a lot of resources for the intensive process of desalinating seawater.
, on the other hand, is not projected to start overconsuming until December 17. It has successfully turned to to power its grid, relying mainly on , and biomass.
Sticking to what Earth can replenish
And then there are the countries that stay within bounds of the planet’s capacity such as , and , among others. In order to stay within our means, the world’s ecological footprint would have to equal the available biocapacity per person on our planet, which currently stands at about 1.5 global hectares.
Biocapacity is defined as land and ocean areas that provide resources such as food and timber, can accommodate urban infrastructure and absorb excess CO2. Anything higher than the global available biocapacity per person is overexploiting resources.
Germany has about the same amount of biocapacity per person as the global average, but uses about three times more, Wackernagel said.
While India, the world’s most populous country, uses more than the country itself can renew in a year, globally speaking “the level of consumption is less than one planet,” he said, adding that one planet should not be the goal. “There are also other species, so we should probably be below one planet to be robust.”
Decades of overusing are taking a toll
Wackernagel said we are taking resources “far beyond what Earth can regenerate” yet have a collective understanding that what we are doing is fine. “But we’re fooling ourselves.”
Paul Shrivastava, co-president of think tank Club of Rome, said it’s time to rethink how we understand economies. “We need to change from that extractive mindset of the economy to a regenerative one,” he told DW.
“Mining is a kind of extraction. Oil is a kind of extraction. Once we take it out of the earth, we don’t give anything back,” he added.
Wackernagel said it’s not about what we need to give up, but rather how we can prepare ourselves for the future and what will be valuable then.
Rather than adjusting economies to reduce overshooting, people are trying to squeeze the last bit out of the toothpaste tube, Wackernagel said.
“In the United States, where I live, I could see that many of the themes around the elections last year were very overshoot related. For example, the fear of not having enough energy,” he said. However, the government has failed to address the problem of overshooting and instead pushed to “drill more holes and get more fossil fuels” out of the ground.
How to push back Overshoot Day?
The Global Footprint Network has outlined a number of solutions in five key areas to push back the date of Earth Overshoot Day.
The energy sector is by far the biggest factor at play: Placing a price on carbon emissions that reflects the true cost of carbon pollution on the planet would help move the date by 63 days.
Smart cities with integrated systems, advanced energy management and foresight through sensors to regulate energy in buildings could add another 29 days to the calendar.
Replacing coal and gas-fired power plants with renewable energy such as solar and wind and generating 75% of electricity from low-carbon sources would move the date by another 26 days.
Halving would provide another 13 extra days and replacing 50% of global meat consumption with plant-based alternatives would add seven days from CO2 emissions and land use alone. Just one meatless day per week would add around two days.
‘Vested interests in maintaining the current system’
“There are vested interests in maintaining the current system” such as in fossil fuels, said Shrivastava.
And while individual changes such as eating less meat, favoring biking over car rides and vacationing closer to home rank comparatively low on the power of possibility chart, voters have the power to push for systemic changes.
“We don’t control all of that individually, but we can have a say in it and we can talk to the people who have a say in it,” said Shrivastava, by engaging in peaceful protests and in supporting local political candidates that have an ecological vision. Such changes will come from the power of the people, he added.
“Overshoot is the second-largest risk humanity faces this century,” Wackernagel said. “The largest one is not to respond.”
Edited by: Tamsin Walker
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