This means that the planet’s resources available for this year would have been exhausted by Monday if everyone in the world consumed as the Portuguese do.
Resources naturally continue to exist, but according to the organization’s calculations, Portugal’s consumption already exhausts the planet’s regeneration capacity for 2025.
Last Tuesday, the European Union (EU) also reached its “Overshoot Day,” the day it exhausted its available resources for this year and started consuming resources that should only be used next year, according to the Global Footprint Network.
Last year, the day when Europeans had already consumed the resources for the entire year was recorded on May 3, indicating a worse performance now, as they exhausted everything even earlier, five days sooner.
Portugal, however, shows an even worse performance compared to last year, as it fell back 23 days on the calendar.
In 2024, the country hit the overshoot on May 28, and this year, it consumed resources intended for the entire year by May 5, indicating that the Portuguese are consuming their allocated resources more rapidly.
The Netherlands also depletes the resources that Earth can renew in a year today. Like the Portuguese, the Dutch live as if there were three planets and treat nature as an inexhaustible resource, says the organization.
According to the Global Footprint Network, the first country to deplete its resources this year was Qatar, on February 6. Last year it was also the first, but on February 11.
Luxembourg appears again in second place, consuming everything by February 17, and in third place is Singapore, by February 26.
The United States depleted its resources on March 13, Denmark and Australia on March 19, Russia on April 6, and France on April 19. Spain will only exhaust its resources on the upcoming 23rd.
On the other end of the spectrum, among the countries that manage to conserve their resources better, Uruguay stands out, depleting its allocated resources only by December 17.
Indonesia depletes its resources on November 18, Nicaragua on November 11, and Ecuador on October 31.
The Global Footprint Network is an international research organization providing policymakers with tools to help human economies operate within the Earth’s ecological limits. The calculations to estimate the overshoot days are based on the latest data.
On June 5, World Environment Day, the organization announces the date of ‘Earth Overshoot Day,’ the moment when humanity’s demand for environmental resources and services exceeds the Earth’s capacity to regenerate those resources within the same year.
In the organization’s words, it marks the date when “humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year.”
The Planetary Overshoot Day in 2024 was on August 1, one day earlier than the previous year.
