Faced with the day of overcoming, how to act?

It has arrived: it is Overshoot Day, which marks the time of year when our global consumption exceeds what the Earth is capable of producing. A key moment that should alert us to the need to change our consumption.

It had fallen in 2020, due to a global pandemic, only to return to a similar level to that of the world before last year. the day of overrunmeaning that the world’s population has run out of the resources the planet can produce in a year, it falls on July 28, 2022, according to measurements from the Global Footprint Network.

In 2021, the overshoot day was calculated as July 29. We have therefore been in a relatively constant state since 2018, which is by no means reassuring.

From today until December 31, 2022, so we live on credit. At the rate we are going, we would need 1.75 planets to absorb all of our needs.

Faced with the day of overcoming, how to act?

The day of the overshoot: an alarm signal to change our consumption

So what do you do? The Global Footprint Network wants to give resources so as not to limit itself to scare everyone without giving a way out.

“We’re not the type who sees this as the end of the world. We’re not too optimistic either, telling you that you have to “change the bulbs and everything will be fine”. Let’s be realistic. Somewhere in between. “

This means limiting your air travel (this also applies to you, Kylie Jenner), but also limiting the use of single-use plastic by rethinking the way you buy clothes.

It is about drastically reducing our greenhouse gas emissions in hopes of reversing the trend, as we currently emit more than the planet can absorb.

It is also on the side of food that we must profoundly change our way of life. The NGO for the protection of the environment WWF invites us to “change our diets by reducing the consumption of meat and dairy products”. A reduction that will have visible effects according to Pierre Cannet, Director of Advocacy for WWF France with France Info: ” The good news is that if we cut our meat consumption in half and reduce our food waste, we could cut the deadline by one month.. “

This may all sound ridiculous when we see that, despite our individual efforts, large industries continue to exploit fossil fuels, while the effects of global warming have never been felt so much. But this symbolic day of overcoming can be used as an electroshock, as Pierre Cannet hopes:

“We have solutions to repel dates through less meaty diets, agroecological production methods and the protection of natural ecosystems. So if this day marks our minds once again, thus coming to the beginning of the year, now a massive move to action must begin. ”