Humanity has burned through Earth’s annual budget for resources in under eight months.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Known as Earth Overshoot Day, 2 August marks the date on which we’ve used up all the resources that the planet can regenerate in one year.
“Persistent overshoot leads to ever more prominent symptoms including unusual heatwaves, forest fires, droughts, and floods with the risk of compromising food production,” says Steven Tebbe, CEO of the Global Footprint Network - the organisation which produces the estimate.
But there is good news as we’ve used our annual budget roughly five days later than in 2022 - and the pace at which it is moving forward is slowing down.
Other national policies like creating 15-minute cities - where everything you need on a day-to-day basis can be reached by walking or cycling - as well as introducing a four-day work week could push back the date by 11 days.
If a third of all miles travelled by car were replaced by public transport, walking or cycling then the date would fall 13 days later.
I’m a bot and I’m open source!
We’re killing it with these records! Pun intended.
I remember when I was still in school when earth overshoot day occurred… it just keeps getting earlier and earlier