Important Facts For Prelims
Earth Overshoot Day
- 30 Jul 2019
- 2 min read
The Earth Overshoot Day fell on 29th July, 2019. The day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources (fish and forests, for instance) and services in a given year exceeds what the Earth can regenerate in that year.
- The concept of Earth Overshoot Day was first conceived by Andrew Simms of the UK think tank New Economics Foundation, which partnered with Global Footprint Network in 2006 to launch the first global Earth Overshoot Day campaign.
- At that time, Earth Overshoot Day fell in October.
- World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the world’s largest conservation organization, has participated in Earth Overshoot Day since 2007.
- It is computed by Global Footprint Network by dividing the planet’s biocapacity (the amount of ecological resources Earth is able to generate that year), by humanity’s Ecological Footprint (humanity’s demand for that year), and multiplying by 365, the number of days in a year:
Earth Overshoot Day = (Planet’s Biocapacity / Humanity’s Ecological Footprint) x 365
- Global Footprint Network is an international non profit organization founded in the year 2003. It’s key strategy has been to make available robust Ecological Footprint data.
- The Ecological Footprint is a metric that comprehensively compares human demand on nature against nature’s capacity to regenerate.
