On Thursday, humanity runs out of the planet’s resources available for this year

On Thursday, humanity will exhaust the planet’s available resources for this year, starting to consume resources from 2025, the international organization “Global Footprint Network” warns.

The so-called Planetary Overshoot Day means that humanity’s demand for natural resources exceeds the planet’s ability to replenish them, so people have been living “on credit” since Thursday.

According to calculations by the International Organization for Sustainable Development, a pioneer of the ecological footprint, humanity uses nature 1.7 times faster than the planet’s ecosystems can be restored.

Overuse of resources is threatening oceans, leading to deforestation, soil erosion, loss of biodiversity and increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), the gas responsible for global warming, leading to extreme weather events and increased food insecurity, the organisation warns.

The Ecological Footprint Indicator began to be created in 1971, when resources were sufficient for almost the entire year. Beginning in 1984, resources only reached November, and in 1993 – only until October.

Since then, humanity has consumed more and more resources, with only a slight drop in consumption in 2020 due to the pandemic.

This year, August 1 (one day earlier than in 2023) is a record.

Repairing products instead of buying new ones is one way to reduce consumption, and a directive to that effect came into force today in the European Union (EU), with states required to transpose it by 2026.

The law requires manufacturers of products such as refrigerators or smartphones to offer timely repairs at a reasonable price and provide spare parts.

The platform for refurbished products in its statement cites United Nations data that shows that global e-waste production will reach 62 million tons in 2022, up 82% from 2010, of which 4.6 million tons are small equipment such as laptops or cell phones (one of the best-selling refurbished products).

Refurbishing electronic devices saves on average 83% CO2 emissions, 89% water and 77% waste compared to new products.

If all e-waste were recycled or reused, Planetary Reload Day could be delayed by about four days, the platform also reports.

And he adds: if five out of every 10 smartphones sold in Portugal were refurbished, the country’s CO2 emissions would be reduced by one day.

The platform calls for action against the waste of electronic resources, claims that the average person keeps 2.72 old smartphones at home, which is a huge waste of valuable resources, and advocates for lifestyle changes towards a more closed economy.

According to the Global Footprint Network, Portugal exhausted its own resources much earlier, on May 28 this year. Since then, the Portuguese have been consuming resources that they should only use in 2025.

According to the figures, if every person on the planet lived like the average Portuguese, humanity would need about 2.9 planets to maintain its resource use.

Every Portuguese can return to the day when resources are exhausted if they reduce their consumption of animal protein (currently three times more than they would like), prioritize public transport and smooth movement, and consume in a more circular way, getting less and better quality instead of using and throwing away, warned the environmental association Zero.

The Ecological Footprint estimates human needs for renewable resources and essential services and compares them with the Earth’s capacity to provide such resources and services (biocapacity).

In its calculations to determine the day of planetary overload, the Global Footprint Network has set the EU to exhaust its allocated resources even earlier, on May 3.

But the first country to run out of supplies was Qatar on February 11, followed by Luxembourg on February 20, the United Arab Emirates on March 4 and the United States on March 14.

The last countries to run out of resources will be Ecuador and Indonesia (November 24), Iraq (November 15) and Jamaica (November 12).