The first of August snap theEarth Overshoot Day 2024the day of overexploitation of the Earth calculated every year by Global Footprint Networkwhich indicates how in just 7 months humanity has already used what the Earth uses 12 months to regenerate. Globally we are consuming the equivalent of 1.7 Planets per year, a figure that could reach in 2030 to two planets based on current trends. This was announced by the WWF Italy.
Earth Overshoot Day is calculated by dividing the biocapacity of the Planet (the amount of ecological resources that the Earth is able to generate in that year) for theecological footprint of humanity (the demand of our societies for that same year) and multiplying everything by 365the days of a year. This means that from Thursday, August 1, 2024 humanity has already “finished” all the resources that Nature produces in a whole year and is starting to go into debt. Humanity, with its more than 8 billion of inhabitants, consumes in excessive quantities, beyond the regeneration (and reabsorption) capacity of the Planet.
Fifty years ago, in 1974Overshoot Day fell on November 30th: we were over our annual budget by one month. In 2004The September 2ndIn the 2014 The August 5th. The date has always been brought forward and our ecological debt has grown. Italy is also one of the countries with the highest ecological debt. TheOvershoot Day for our country it has already arrived May 19th.
The persistence of this state of overexploitation of nature for over half a century has led to a drastic loss of biodiversityan excess of greenhouse gases of anthropogenic origin in the atmosphere, the effects of which are becoming more evident with the increasing frequency and intensity of heat waves, forest fires, Drought And floodsposing a threat to our very survival.