Earth Overshoot Day will be reached even earlier than last year – after that, humanity will practically live on credit as far as the available natural resources are concerned. Germany is one of the countries that make an above-average contribution to exploitation.
Forests, water, farmland: Humanity consumes more natural resources every year than the earth can replenish. From the so-called Earth Overshoot Day on Thursday, people are claiming more of it than they actually have at their disposal for this year. This was the result of calculations by the Global Footprint Network based in the USA and Switzerland. The day is earlier than last year.
“From Thursday we will be living on our earth on credit,” said Christoph Bals from the environmental and development organization Germanwatch, according to the announcement. “Currently, humanity consumes arithmetically 1.75 earths, we burden the poor today and the following generations in particular with the consequences of this overexploitation – and with increasing intensity.”
The climate is out of joint, said Olaf Bandt, chairman of the Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND), according to the announcement. “We must immediately limit the dramatic effects of the climate crisis and global species extinction.” The organizations see companies and politicians as primarily responsible. “The federal government must initiate clear legal requirements that take account of the planetary boundaries: for resource protection, energy efficiency and soil protection,” said Bandt.
Germanwatch sees Germany and the European Union as having a “particular responsibility” to reduce the ecological footprint. To this end, the federal government should get more involved in the negotiations on the EU climate package. “The package should ensure, for example, that aviation finally has to buy emissions trading certificates for its full climate impact.”
This year’s Earth Overshoot Day is earlier than last year. According to Germanwatch, consumption exceeded available resources for the first time in 1970, and by 2000 Earth Overshoot Day had already moved from December to September. Since 2018, Earth Overshoot Day has fallen at the end of July – with the exception of 2020, when the corona pandemic temporarily reduced resource consumption.
Viewed individually, Germany had already used up the reserves of natural resources it was entitled to for this year at the beginning of May. If all countries were to economize like Germany, not just 1.75, but around three Earths would be needed.