Today is Earth Overshoot Day (EOD), the day when humanity consumed all the resources produced by the planet for one year. Simply put, we have consumed all the resources the Earth can offer in 365 days … in less than 10 months. However, there is good news: this day is late compared to 2019.
Last year, in fact, this day fell on July 29, 2019. What do we owe this slowdown to? Certainly the blocks to slow down the new coronavirus they caused a temporary drop in emissions and resource harvesting. This has reduced humanity’s footprint by 9.3% compared to last year.
Still, “it’s not something to celebrate,” said Mathis Wackernagel, president of the Global Footprint Network. Comparing that to what’s available sustainably, researchers estimate that humanity uses 60% more than can actually be refurbished, the equivalent of 1.6 planets.
According to the report, the pandemic resulted in a 14.5% decrease in humanity’s carbon footprint compared to 2019, while forest products recorded an 8.4% decline. Efforts to control the pandemic show that it is possible to change consumption habits in a short space of time. It is about “an unprecedented opportunity to reflect on the future we want“, again according to the Global Footprint Network.
In short, we would not have consumed all the resources of our planet sooner than expected, but we need to improve even more. So we’ll talk about it again next year.
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