Environment
German Earth Overshoot Day: Resources depleted for 2023
With a view to their resource consumption, people in Germany are now living on credit. photo
© Patrick Pleul/dpa
When it comes to resources, people in Germany live on too large a foot: If all the world’s citizens were to consume so much, it would take several planets.
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.”
According to the Global Footprint Network, Qatar consumes the most resources per capita in an international comparison: The calculated Earth Overshoot Day for the emirate was already on February 10th.