Mankind reached Overload Day on August 1st
The humanity has reached the so-called Earth Overshoot Day, August 1st, according to calculations by experts, as stated by the environmental organization Germanwatch on Thursday. This is the point in time when the world population, according to the Global Footprint Network, has consumed all the resources that the planet can naturally regenerate within a year. From then on, people live at the expense of nature.
"For decades, Earth Overshoot Day has been increasing almost every year, and it has been at a high level for nearly ten years," explained the political director of Germanwatch, Christoph Bals. However, a turning point can be seen. With renewable energies, storage technologies, electric mobility, and heat pumps, overshooting can be reduced soon, he emphasized. "But these and other encouraging trends must be significantly accelerated to prevent irreversible climate tipping points and massive further species losses," he added.
Air travel is particularly climate-damaging - although, according to experts, more than 80 percent of the world population never board an aircraft. Only a very small part of the world population is responsible for one of the major drivers of the climate crisis with their flying behavior, explained the Germanwatch representative for climate-neutral mobility, Jacob Rohm. Therefore, work on technical solutions for nearly climate-neutral flying "needs to be done with high pressure."
The global Earth Overshoot Day has been shifting nearly continuously further forward for almost 20 years. In 2000, the date was still on September 23rd, more than a month later than it is today. The Corona pandemic caused an exception: In 2020, reduced economic activities and lockdown measures significantly reduced CO2 emissions and delayed the symbolic date to August 22nd.
After witnessing a consistent increase for decades, Experts predict that with the implementation of renewable energies, storage technologies, electric mobility, and heat pumps, the trend of Earth Overshoot Day advancing towards August 1st, as seen in recent years, might start to reverse soon. Despite this, humanity has already reached Overload Day in August, as per calculations by environmental Experts, indicating that we've consumed more resources than the Earth can regenerate in that year. This pattern has been ongoing for nearly two decades, with the date shifting further forward each year.
