Humanity has depleted the Earth’s natural resources for the year, surpassing the planet’s capacity to replenish them, as reported by a natural resources research organization.
On August 2, 2023, the world observed Earth Overshoot Day, which signifies the exhaustion of the planet’s ecological resources for the entire year.
From this day until the end of 2023, humans will be accumulating a debt by continually depleting nature and generating waste, including carbon dioxide, according to data provided by the Global Footprint Network, a research organization.
Our demand on the environment has exceeded its ability to regenerate vital resources like wood, water, and plants.
Since 1971, the Global Footprint Network has been marking Earth Overshoot Day annually.
“During the pandemic, when we were using fewer resources, we actually made some progress, but now we have returned to our starting point,” commented Eric Miller, director of the Ecological Footprint Initiative in York’s Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change.
In 2020, at the peak of the pandemic, Earth Overshoot Day was on August 16, the latest date since 2009 that this milestone was reached.
Miller compares Earth Overshoot Day to an overdrawn bank account, emphasizing that humanity has once again exceeded its limits, but instead of money, we have used up natural resources.
“With seven months into the year, the account is already empty,” he added.
The Global Footprint Network calculates Earth’s biocapacity, which represents the amount of ecological resources that the planet can generate within a year, and then divides it by humanity’s ecological footprint. Multiplying this figure by 365 yields the Earth Overshoot Day for that year.
The earliest date on which humanity depleted Earth’s resources for the year was August 1, in both 2018 and 2022, according to the Global Footprint Network.
Back in 1971, when researchers began these calculations, Earth Overshoot Day fell on December 25, marking just a week when humans outpaced the environment.
In summary, Earth’s resources have been exhausted for the year.
