Every year we commemorate, and increasingly earlier, the call Overshoot Day, o Overcapacity or Earth Overshoot Day. It is the day when humanity’s consumption and demand for natural resources exceeds what our planet can regenerate in a year. Worldwide, in 2023 that day was August 2. In the year 2000, it was September 15. In 1971 it was around December 25th. The rest of the year, we live mortgaging the future resources of the planet. At the current rate of consumption, globally, we would be using the equivalent of 1.7 planet Earths. It is the conclusion of the organization Global Footprint Network which, for years, has been monitoring our ecological footprint.
Environmental sustainability would be that balance point at which our rate of consumption of natural resources over the course of a year is comparable to the Earth’s biocapacity to regenerate these resources and absorb our waste in that same period of time. Currently, no developed country meets this sustainability criterion. For example, if all the inhabitants of the planet consumed resources at the rate that Qatar does, we would have used up the global resources available in a year in just 42 days… That is, we would need the resources of nine planets to satisfy our demand! !
If all the inhabitants of the Earth consumed resources at the rate that Qatar does, we would need the resources of nine planets to satisfy our demand
February 11 was the overshoot day from Qatar. But we don’t have to go that far: if we all consumed at the rate of Luxembourg, the planet’s resources would have run out on February 20! If we look at the days of overcapacity from Denmark (March 16), Belgium (March 23), Netherlands (April 1), Austria (April 7), Finland (April 12), Sweden (April 21), Germany (May 2) and France (May 7), it is reasonable to ask ourselves: is Europe sustainable in its lifestyle and consumption? Spain, for example, is not far from the average consumption levels of the European Union. Today, May 20, has reached its overshoot day, which means that it consumes the equivalent of 2.8 planets per year.
But if we also link the consumption rate of each country with the standard of living of its population, measured in terms of the Human Development Index, the picture is even more alarming. The least advanced countries are at the same time the most environmentally sustainable because their resource consumption is below the Earth’s biocapacity to produce what they need. However, its population lives mostly in poverty, without guaranteed basic rights to live with dignity. At the other extreme, rich countries, whose population has the best standards of living standards, access to rights and a decent life, are highly unsustainable in their rate of consumption of natural resources.
European citizens live with a lifestyle and consumption rate that is absolutely unsustainable in terms of natural resources.
Europe is one of the largest consumers of natural resources, far above the planet’s real capacity to produce so many resources and at the required pace. This implies that European citizens live with a lifestyle and a rate of consumption that is absolutely unsustainable in terms of natural resources. Likewise, to maintain this pace, it is necessary, no matter what, to take resources away from other inhabitants of other latitudes. It is only possible to maintain our standards of living and consumption at the expense of acquiring the resources of other countries. Africa, part of Asia and Latin America become, once again, sources of natural resources, essential to guarantee the well-being of the citizens of highly developed countries… The European population does not even reach 6% of the total population world.
Is it possible to live in another way, based on the economy of sufficiency or needs, and not on the economy of growth and unlimited consumption? Is it ethical to live with a lifestyle and consumption that necessarily requires the appropriation of the necessary resources so that people from other latitudes can live with dignity? What type of global trade and economy are necessary and compatible with a socially just and environmentally sustainable world?
We can try to answer these questions or ignore them, but reality is there and challenges us. Latin American networks such as Pan-Amazon Network or the Churches and Mining Network, with which Manos Unidas works, remind us that this development model—with its regulations and practices framed in the economic paradigm of unlimited growth—does nothing more than continue plundering natural resources, causing destruction. of distant ecosystems, pollution, environmental deterioration, violation of ancestral territories, human rights, collective rights of indigenous peoples… In this way, they become territories of sacrifice, so that those of us in the North can continue making the energy transition, green, clean and sustainable.
Building fair, supportive and sustainable societies requires a critical and transformative review of our production and consumption models and lifestyles, as proposed by the international community in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12. This affects the economy, to trade and the type of relationship we establish with the countries of the South.
To be able to fight hunger and poverty we have to be able to take care of the environment and ecosystems, as well as make sustainable use of available resources. That should make us reflect, mobilize and walk towards what we want to build, as people and institutions. We can only end hunger and poverty in the world if we are able to take care of available resources and preserve ecosystems, near and far, to guarantee a dignified life for everyone, wherever they are.
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