This year’s Earth Overshoot Day has arrived, prompting campaigners to call for urgent action on issues like consumption, deep-sea mining, waste and farming practises that are depleting the natural world.
The landmark date falls on August 1, marking the moment humanity’s demand on nature in 2024 exceeds Earth’s capacity to regenerate for the given year.
This means people are currently harvesting nature 1.7 times faster than the planet’s ecosystems can restore what was used.
For the remainder of 2024, the world will be living on overuse of nature’s capital, which could lead to resource insecurity in the future.
Reacting to Earth Overshoot Day, campaigners called for the Government to urgently tackle issues like consumption, waste, deep-sea mining, and farming to help push the date back to later in the year in future.
Libby Peake, head of resource policy at Green Alliance, said: “Waste is wired in to every part of the UK economy, which means we use almost twice the amount of resources, including food, fuel, minerals and metals, as the UN says is sustainable.
“In the absence of targets, the Government has struggled to improve how we use resources and reduce waste, despite recognising the scale of the problem for years.”
Ms Peak said ministers should use powers they already have under the 2021 Environment Act, set a target to bring the country’s material footprint within planetary limits, and focus on specific sectors that have an outsized impact on the environment.
She cited previous research from Green Alliance which found that new construction techniques and technologies could cut upfront raw material use by 39% and an ambitious approach to textiles reuse and recycling could see it fall by as much as 63%.
Meanwhile, Briony Venn, Greenpeace UK campaigner, said the Government should focus on stopping the emerging industry of deep sea mining.
She said: “Our natural world is a treasure trove of biodiversity but we continually take from the forests, deserts, grasslands, polar ecosystems, and now companies are even seeking to mine the deep sea.
“We don’t have long to stop this new threat that will remove even more from our oceans, which are one of our best defences against climate change.
“Imagine if we could go back in time and stop offshore drilling at the dawn of the oil age and prevent environmental and climate catastrophes,” she said, adding that there is still the opportunity to stop a new extractive industry before it starts.
“It’s time for a greener, healthier and more peaceful planet, one that can sustain life for generations to come.”
Anthony Field, head of Compassion in World Farming UK, said the world must act urgently to help halt humanity’s excessive demand on nature when it comes to food.
“It will be impossible to avert climate and nature catastrophes without a fast and dramatic reduction in meat and dairy consumption – both here in the UK and across the globe,” he said.
“Diets must switch to predominantly plant-based where animal-sourced foods are from higher welfare, regenerative systems.
“Working in harmony with nature will support and harness natural processes by producing food whilst also enhancing soil quality and restoring biodiversity.”
Earth Overshoot Day, which is calculated by international sustainability organisation the Global Footprint Network each year, comes one day earlier compared to 2023, when it fell on August 2.
The day has held steady around the August date for more than a decade but the pressure on the planet keeps increasing as the damage from overshoot accumulates over time, the Global Footprint Network said.
Meanwhile, longer-term trends show the day has been arriving earlier and earlier in the year since the inaugural calculation in 1970, when it was marked almost five months later on December 23.
Ellie Chowns, Green Party MP for North Herefordshire, said: “This speed of change demonstrates just how fast we are burning through the Earth’s resources.
“Today’s grim milestone must mark a changing point in our approach to the natural world and our pursuit of growth at all costs.
“Keir Starmer should start by introducing a Rights of Nature Act, giving rights to nature itself, and set aside 30% of our land and seas by 2030 in which nature will receive the highest priority and protection.”
Our environment is our most precious resource; we depend on it for the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. Unless nature flourishes in the UK, we cannot flourish either.”
Lewis Akenji, Global Footprint Network board member, said: “Overshoot will end. The question is how: by design or by disaster.
“A planned transition gives us better security than ceding to the whims of a planet thrown off balance by overshoot.”
The Environment Department (Defra) has been contacted for comment.
