Earth Overshoot Day, also known as “Earth Overshoot Day”, is the day on which humanity has used up all of the world’s resources for the current year. In 2024, this is already the case on August 1, in 2023 it was still August 2. The day of action has been calculated since 1961 by the international organization “Global Footprint Network” using the ecological footprint and is intended to point out that human demand for renewable raw materials exceeds the supply that our earth can provide in a year. From “Earth Overshoot Day” onwards, humanity is effectively in a resource deficit, as it has already used up all its resources.
Reasons for global congestion
When people talk about “earth overload”, they are primarily referring to the overload caused by our high consumption and climate-damaging behavior. The consumption of fish and wood as well as the use of large agricultural areas contributes enormously to global depletion, but the high volume of waste, environmental pollution and high emissions are also among the main causes of earth overload. Air travel in particular, but also high meat consumption, are key drivers of the climate crisis.

How exactly is Earth Overshoot Day calculated?
The basis for the calculation is the ecological footprint, which we have already reported on in detail in this article. The ecological footprint is a measurement tool that can be used to determine how many natural resources people consume. In addition to the ecological footprint, the Earth’s biocapacity is also used for the calculation. This is the amount of ecological resources that can be produced by the earth in one year. The Earth’s biocapacity is therefore compared with the ecological footprint and it is measured whether the consumption of resources in an entire year is higher than the supply of resources. If this is the case, we speak of “overshoot”, i.e. ecological debt. However, the size of a country is also decisive for the calculation.
The calculation, for which the University of York in England is primarily responsible, also involves calculating the amount of land available for each earthling. If we do not want to exceed the planet’s regenerative capacity, per capita consumption should not exceed 1.5 hectares. Currently, however, consumption is 2.6 hectares per capita, which means that the sustainability limit has already been exceeded. In other words, you could also say that, from a global perspective, around 1.8 Earths would be needed to maintain a sustainable balance.

Earth Overshoot Day 2024 - Countries compared
Every year since 1970, Earth Overshoot Day has taken place even earlier than the year before. The main reason for this is the globally high level of consumption in industrialized countries and the strong economic development of countries such as China, Brazil, Mexico and Turkey. In addition to the global calculation, there is also a congestion day specific to each country. In Austria, this day was already on April 7, 2024, while in Germany it fell on May 2. Many Central European countries are well below the global average in the current ranking, so the day falls particularly early in the year in many countries. The so-called “Country Overshoot Days 2024” were already on February 11, 2024 for Qatar, on February 20 for Luxembourg, on March 4 for the United Arab Emirates and on March 14 for the USA. So if everyone in the world lived as they do in Qatar or Luxembourg, we would need 8 to 9 Earths to sustainably cover our resource requirements. According to the Global Footprint, the overshoot days for Ecuador, Indonesia, Iraq and Jamaica are only calculated for November 2024 and for Guatemala, Cuba, El Salvador and Colombia for October 2024.
Earth Overshoot Day therefore also clearly shows how much inequality there is worldwide in terms of wealth and resources. Environmental protection organizations such as the WWF are calling for a global reduction in resource consumption and measures to restore nature. Resource-intensive countries in particular, such as the USA, Germany, France and Austria, are called upon to introduce climate protection legislation and implement sustainable strategies in the coming years.
If you would like to find out more about the topic, you can read all the other facts and figures about Earth Overshoot Day here.