Earth Overshoot Day 2022 - Until the end of the year, humanity is now living "on credit" with nature

Earth Overshoot Day 2022 – Until the end of the year, humanity is now living “on credit” with nature

Posted On: July 28, 2022

Earth Overshoot Day: The world has run out of resources for the year. (alliance/dpa image | Carsten Koall)

By the July 28 deadline, for the year 2022 humanity has used up all the resources that the planet could naturally replace in a year. Given current consumption, the world population actually needs 1.75 earths. Federal Development Minister Schulze (SPD) stressed that industrialized countries in particular were part of the problem. Europe, for example, should no longer allow itself to cause environmental destruction and human rights abuses in other parts of the world through consumption, the SPD politician said.

Germany consumes significantly more resources

On an individual basis, Germany has depleted the natural resource reserves to which it is entitled for the current year in early May. If all countries wanted to be as frugal as Germany, three earths would be needed. Still much worse than the Federal Republic Japanese, Italian, Swiss and China there. However, even India and the United States manage natural resources better than Germany; but even these countries would need nearly three earths to make ends meet every year – if they couldn’t “cross-subsidize” their consumption at the expense of other countries.

Who counted Earth Overshoot Days?

Organization “Global Footprint Network“, based in California, calculates the so-called ecological footprint every year and thus clarifies the ecological boundaries of the planet. Since 1970, the symbolic date of Earth Overshoot Day has advanced. If the day in 2000 was September 23, it would already be 2021 on 29 July This year has moved one day ahead.

If the world’s population permanently lives on a planetary possibility, this will lead to, among other things, a decrease in biodiversity, an excess of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and an increase in competition for resources. food and energyenvironmentalists warn.