The Earth Overshoot Day was created by the New Economics Foundation, a partner organization of the Global Footprint Network, which counts with the contribution of 70 organizations.
This date marks the day that Humanity used all the biological resources that the Planet Earth is able to regenerate throughout a year. In 2021, the Earth's Overshoot Day is on July 29th.
What is the importance of Earth Overshoot Day?
The Earth Overshoot Day (EOD) comes as a wake-up call to all people on our planet.
Combined with the population and consumption growth, industrialization led to a profound destabilization of the natural systems.
To "feed" the current system that is in place, industries have been increasing the speed and volume of natural resources extraction from our planet. However, this massive exploitation of the earth's natural resources has reached an unsustainable level.
Currently, to meet the needs of resources to societies demands, we would need 1.7 Earths. Given that, so far, we only have one, from this date foward, we begin to live "on credit" and above the Planet's regeneration capacity, leading to increasing scarcity of resources and the degradation of natural systems.
In Portugal, the situation is even more pronounced since if all countries were to consume like us, a total of 2.5 Earths would be needed. The first time we exceeded this limit was in 1970 and it is estimated that since that year, this date has already been brought forward by about 3 months.
If we continue the current trend, by 2050, globally we will be extracting twice the resources that our planet has the capacity to regenerate for a year, generating the degradation of natural systems, in some cases irreversible.
How is Earth Overshoot Day calculated?
Annually, the Global Footprint Network, a non-profit organization focused on investigating and developing tools that promote sustainable development, conducts a study to determine the date on which natural resources the planet Earth has the ability to regenerate for this year.
This study, which includes the analysis of more than 200 countries, from 1961 to the present date, assesses the date on which this limit is exceeded in each of the countries included in the study as well as worldwide.
As a curiosity, in 2019, worldwide, this date occurred on July 29th, 3 days earlier than in 2018 (August 1). In Portugal, this date happened on May 26th, 2019, 21 days earlier than in 2018.
Check out the dates of Earth Overload Day from the past 10 years:
* In 2020, Earth Overshoot Day was calculated taking into account the initial fall in resources used in the first half of the year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Every other year assumes a constant rate of resources used throughout the year.
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Sources:
Authors:
Mariana Pinto e Costa (Co-founder BeeCircular)
Daniela Diana (Marketing and Communication Intern)
Contact us: beecircular.geral@gmail.com