It takes a pandemic, but then it falls Earth Overshoot Day also more than three weeks later than last year. For the first time since the 1970s, the day when we have used up more resources than the earth can produce is not earlier than the year before.
It Global Footprint Network calculates every year on which day the earth is used up. Last year it was on July 29. This year it will be on August 22. This is directly the result of the lockdowns to contain the corona pandemic. As a result, there has been a temporary drop in CO2 emissions and far fewer trees were felled. Our ecological footprint is thus 9.3 percent smaller than last year, according to the researchers.
“But that’s not something to celebrate,” said Global Footprint Network director Mathis Wackernagel in an online presentation Thursday. “It didn’t happen as a result of policy, but as a result of a disaster.”
Earth Overshoot Day is calculated by looking at the global human needs for food, energy and space for houses and roads and what it takes to absorb the CO2 emissions. By comparing that with what is sustainably available, the researchers estimate that humanity consumes 60 percent more than can be renewed. It means that we actually need 1.6 Earths. “It’s like money. We can spend more than we have, but not forever, ”Wackernagel concludes.
Bron(nen): Science Alert
–
– .
