Earth Overshoot Day – in English, Earth Overshoot Day – marks the day of the year when humanity's demand for natural resources and ecological services exceeds the Earth's capacity to produce or renew these resources over the course of 365 days.
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In other words, we can say that it is when we enter the red and start using the “special check” of the planetsystem. (WWF-Brazil)
How is Earth Overshoot Day calculated?
Earth Overshoot Day is organized and calculated by Global Footprint Network (GFN), an international research organization.
Annually, to determine this date, the organization calculates the number of days that year in which the Earth's biocapacity will be sufficient to supply humanity's Ecological Footprint.
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It is worth remembering that the Ecological Footprint is the metric that compares the demand for resources from individuals, governments and companies with the Earth's biological regeneration capacitysystem. (GFN*)
After this first calculation, the remainder of the year corresponds to the global overhead.
Therefore, the calculation to be made will be the following: divide the planet's biocapacity (the amount of ecological resources that the Earth is capable of generating that year), by humanity's Ecological Footprint (humanity's demand for that year) and multiply up by 365 (the number of days in a year).
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28 July 2022
This year, Global Earth Overshoot Day fell on July 28.
Which means we spent the resources that the Earth is capable of renewing one day earlier than in 2021 – when the date was July 29th.
Last year, 1,7 planets were needed to sustain our consumption pattern. In 2022, this number has risen even further – we now need 1,75 planets – according to information from GFN.
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See when this milestone occurred over the years:
August 12st, 2022
August 12th marks Earth Overshoot Day in Brazil in 2022.
But, despite the Brazilian date taking place 15 days after the global one, there is not much reason to celebrate.
Not when the deforestation seems unbridled and the burned continue to break records.
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Curto curation:
- Do you know your Ecological Footprint? find it out here.
- Earth Overshoot Day arrives early this year: we are already in an environmental overdraft (One Planet)
- See more about last days of Earth overload (Earth Overshoot Day*)
Curto Verde is a daily summary of what you need to know about the environment, sustainability and other topics linked to our survival and that of the planet.
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(🇬🇧): content in English
(*): content in other languages is translated by Google Tradutor
