This day, dubbed "day of overcoming", is calculated by the think tank Global Footprint Network, in partnership with the NGO WWF.
Why does this day come ever earlier in the year and what impact do everyone's habits have on the depletion of natural resources? France 24 interviewed Aurélien Boutaud, doctor of environmental sciences, independent consultant and associate researcher at the CNRS.
France 24 : Why do we say that humanity is now living on credit from an environmental point of view ?
Aurélien Boutaud : What we mean by day of overcoming is that from today, the services that nature is able to give us annually are outdated. The indicator used to calculate this day is the ecological footprint: it measures the area of lands and seas necessary to meet the needs of humanity to produce renewable resources (biomass, food, wood for heating), but also to absorb a number of pollution, including CO2 from fossil fuels.
At the global level, this ecological footprint represents approximately 18 billion hectares, while the actual available area is around 12 billion. The rest of 2019 will be - as in previous years - on a deficit.
It should be known that this situation is mainly related to the consumption of fossil fuels, and therefore greenhouse gas emissions, that the biosphere [all living organisms that develop on the Earth, Ed] can no longer reefer and that will then accumulate in the atmosphere ... then generating climate change.
Is the day of passing, always earlier in the year, connected to the fact that we are always more numerous on Earth ?
The trend is towards population growth and the stabilization of the average ecological footprint per capita.
If we note that the very rich countries are starting to stabilize or even reduce their ecological footprint (which is far from being won), there is a problem of inertia which concerns in particular highly populated countries, such as China. and India. Indeed, developing countries are increasing their ecological footprint per capita. In the end, the ecological footprint continues to increase each year, and the date of the "day of passing" progresses little by little.
When calculating the global environmental impact, two categories of factors come into play: demographics - because the greater the number, the more impact - and the material standard of living.
At present, material living standards are rising, but population growth continues to increase. However, if we change the standard of living material, the ecological footprint can move, as well as if we vary the population factor. Also, we can be more numerous, but on the condition of having a material standard of living that impacts less (with modes of production and consumption with less impact).
Looking at national trends in rich countries, we feel that there is an awareness within the population (even if it does not concern the majority). Unfortunately, the momentum is not at all in developing countries, which legitimately believe they have the right to increase their living standards, as our countries did 40 years ago. However, this development is inevitably done in a repository of social identification turned towards consumerism and social success, through the "consume more".
Also, because of the inertia and the phenomena of demography, we are on movements inscribed on long times, and it will take time before hoping to see the date of the day of overtaking back down. In the immediate future, it is up to our countries - the richest - to lead by example, because it is in our countries that people have the most important ecological footprint.
What can we do at our level to conserve resources and roll back the day of overcoming ?
The levers of action that we can play on a daily basis are mainly food, housing and mobility.
In the example of a Frenchman, a quarter of his ecological footprint is linked to his diet. If the ecological footprint is high on the food side, it is because there is a part of production from animals that is very important, since to produce an animal calorie, it is necessary to produce 3 to 12 vegetable calories. What we are going to eat is therefore a lever on which we can act. It will then focus on the local, and think about the amount of products from animals in our diet.
Housing and mobility also represent a major consumption item, particularly on the carbon footprint. This is why the question of the quality of housing insulation is one of the major issues of the energy transition, in order to reduce the energy needs of buildings.
We must also try to ensure that the various and varied goods that we buy last as long as possible, which joins the problem of waste. We need to think about the life cycle of products that each have their own ecological footprint. The longer it is used, the more its ecological footprint is amortized.
Note that the ecological footprint and the carbon footprint are attributed to the final consumer. The ecological footprint of France is what the French consume, no matter where it was produced on the planet. The risk is to point out individual responsibility and to blame the consumer, while there is obviously a responsibility for the economic and political structure of the country in which we live. It therefore requires political support for this transition, otherwise it may be very complicated.