Day of the overrun: from this July 29, humanity lives on credit
Deforestation zone in the Amazon (illustrative image).
RAPHAEL ALVES / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
This Thursday, July 29, 2021 is the Earth Overshoot Day.
According to the annual calculation of the NGO Global Footprint Network, humanity has reached the end of the resources that the Earth is capable of renewing for a year.
A symbolic day.
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From today, therefore, humanity lives on credit.
Each year the calculation is carried out by the NGO Global Footprint Network from global data and the result is striking: to live as we do and meet the needs of men in ecological resources, we would need not one but of 1.7 planets.
Symbol of overconsumption, this
day of overtaking the Earth
continues to advance with the years.
If the year 2020 had granted us a three-week respite thanks to
the cessation of activities during confinement
, with the economic recovery, we returned in 2021 to the same stage as in 2019.
"
These data clearly show that the recovery plans of the post-
Covid 19
era
can only be successful in the long term if they are based on the regeneration and rational management of ecological resources,
" said Laurel Hanscom, CEO of Global Footprint Network.
A reminder of the climate emergency
Even more striking, in 1970 the Earth Overshoot Day arrived on December 30.
Clearly, in 50 years, we have lost the equivalent of five months.
And five months is a long time, especially when you live in the red, ie on technically non-existent resources.
"
If we needed a reminder of the climate and ecological emergency, Earth
Overshoot
Day will take care of it,
" said Susan Aitken, politician in Glasgow, the city that will host the COP26 on climate in November. next.
► Also to listen: Jean Jouzel, climatologist: "We must develop renewable energies, in addition to nuclear"
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