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What is Earth Overshoot Day?
Every year Earth Overshoot Day marks the date where the annual global demand for resources exceeds what Earth can regenerate that year. The exact date is calculated by dividing the number of natural resources generated by the earth that year (biocapacity) by the humanities consumption of Earths natural resources (ecological footprint) and multiplying this by 365 (366 in leap years).
The first Earth Overshoot Day took place on October 23rd 1987 and has been steadily creeping up the calendar ever since with the 2021 Earth Overshoot Day taking place on the 29th of July.
The exception to the gradual increase in resource consumption causing the Earth Overshoot Day to move up the calendar took place during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. The initial calculations set the date as July 29th - but with the numerous worldwide lockdowns, this was recalculated almost an entire month later at August 22nd, proving that a significant decrease in resource consumption can massively affect the impact on the planet and climate.
Moving Earth Overshoot Day
Although just a hypothetical calculation, Earth Overshoot Day represents a severe misalignment in global sustainability. To begin the arduous task of mitigating the environmental impact of humans we must collectively assess our usage across all industries and focus on avoiding resource depletion with efforts towards rectifying deforestation, species loss, and over mining materials by implementing various sustainability methods across the board.
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