The natural resources available on earth for this year would already be used up this Thursday if everyone lived like those in Germany. According to the environmental organization Germanwatch, three earths would be needed if all countries consumed as many natural resources and produced emissions per inhabitant as Germany.
The information is based on calculations by the Global Footprint Network, headquartered in the USA. The network calculates a national as well as a global Earth Overshoot Day for each country – the so-called Earth Overshoot Day, which fell on July 28 in 2022. Last year, like this year, the German Earth Overshoot Day fell on May 4th.
According to Germanwatch, overexploitation in Germany is mainly due to greenhouse gas emissions. But the consumption of raw materials must also be significantly reduced in order to protect the planet. “The young and future generations and poor people, especially in the global south, have to deal with the most serious consequences of this decades-long overexploitation,” said Political Director Christoph Bals. “But they have contributed the least to this crisis.”
In an international comparison, according to the Global Footprint Network, Qatar consumes the most resources per capita: The emirate’s calculated Earth Overshoot Day was already on February 10th.
