Earth Overshoot Day 2024, every year the day when the Earth’s resources run out comes earlier

In 1971 Overshooh Day fell on Christmas Day, in 1974 it moved to the end of November, since the 2000s it has varied between August and September, with the latter prevailing, and since 2021 it has always been in the first days of the month. For 2024, August 1st is Earth Overshoot Day. It is calculated every year by Global Footprint Network and indicates how in just 7 months humanity has already used what the Earth takes 12 months to regenerate. At this rate, 1.75 Earths would be needed to maintain our current lifestyle. Because the fault lies with man and the activities he conducts.

The date of August 1st is calculated by comparing the planet’s biocapacity, the sum of biologically productive land and sea areas, and humanity’s ecological footprint: the use of fossil fuels, the demand for food, the exploitation of forests. Just take the test proposed by Global Footprint Network to calculate how much, as simple citizens, we influence with our way of life. As Italians we have done even worse. Sunday 19th May was the Italian Overshoot Day and for us it would take more than two and a half lands to maintain this lifestyle.

How to fix it?

The date, both Italian and international, has always been moving forward and our ecological debt has grown. The question is obviously how we can go back. According to the WWF, there are solutions that can be adopted at community or individual level. The first issue is energy: we should use energy generated for 75% from renewable sources, compared to the current 39%, and we could thus move the Overshoot day forward by 26 days; saving and using existing energy efficiency technologies for buildings, industrial processes and electricity production could recover another 21 days.

Eva Alessi, Sustainability Manager of WWF Italy explains: «Humanity is in overshoot ecological for over 50 years. Living constantly above the physical possibilities of our Planet is a limited possibility in time, we risk an ecological disaster: the goods and services that are the basis of our societies and economies are all produced by healthy and functioning ecosystems. We now have many targeted solutions to reverse the overexploitation of resources and support the regeneration of the biosphere in which we live. Opportunities come from all sectors of society. Even just tackling food systems could reduce our debt: halving meat consumption would earn us another 17 days, eliminating food losses and waste that afflict the planet another 13 days. It is essential to act now and not waste any more precious time”.