What is Earth Overshoot Day?

“Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what the Earth can regenerate in that year.”.

Every year Earth Overshoot marks the date, that humanity has already taken from the Earth all resources that can be regenerated naturally. Anything we take after this date to meet our demands will lead to an imbalance in the environment that will have long-term impacts. This overshoot is because we are not sustainable with the resources we have. Waste of resources, system inefficiencies, and never-ending demand cause the overshoot day to arrive earlier every year.

As seen from the picture, the overshoot day arrives earlier each year (with the exception of 2021), reinforcing that we are not sustainable with our resources. 2021, the overshoot day was pushed forward due to the Covid pandemic in 2020/ 2021. As we went into lockdown, we started using fewer resources in our daily lives while still getting most of our jobs done.
This proves that by being sustainable and making greener choices, we can reduce our emissions and considerably reduce the strain on our environment while leading productive and full lives.