Earth Overshoot Day 2025

• 27 Aug 2025

Why in News?

Earth Overshoot Day occurred on 24th July this year(2025), marking the earliest date ever when humanity's demand for ecological resources surpasses what the Earth can regenerate in a year.

• This means humans have consumed an entire year's worth of resources in under seven months.

Key Points

• Definition: Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services exceeds the Earth’s capacity to regenerate them in that year.
• Inception: The idea of Earth Overshoot Day was first proposed by Andrew Simms of the UK think tank New Economics Foundation.
  • The New Economics Foundation partnered with Global Footprint Network in 2006 to launch the campaign. Since 2007, the World Wide Fund (WWF) has collaborated on the initiative.
  • Calculation: Global Footprint Network hosts and calculates the event based on the National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts, maintained by York University.
  • The data is updated annually to reflect the most accurate and current global consumption patterns.
• Formula:

• Biocapacity vs. Ecological Footprint:
  • Biocapacity: The amount of ecological resources Earth can regenerate in a given year (e.g., forests, grazing lands, croplands).
    • Represents the Earth’s productive land and sea areas, including forests, grazing lands, cropland, and fishing grounds.
  • Ecological Footprint: The total demand humanity places on these resources (including food, timber, space for urban infrastructure, and carbon dioxide absorption).
    • Measures a population's demand for resources like food, fiber, timber, and space to absorb CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels.
• Global Impact:
  • Ecological Deficit: When a region’s demand exceeds its ecological supply, it runs an ecological deficit. This deficit is addressed by importing resources, over-exploiting local ecosystems (like overfishing), and emitting CO₂ into the atmosphere.
  • Global Overshoot: At a global scale, ecological deficit and overshoot are synonymous, as there’s no net import of resources to the planet.