Overshoot Day 2022: Italy’s natural resources run out on May 15

Overshoot Day 2022: data from all countries

To actually know when Earth Overshoot Day 2022 will be, we will have to wait until at least World Environment Day on June 5. For now, only calculations of individual countries’ ecological footprints compared to their regeneration capacities are available, which were made by the Global Footprint Network, an international research organization.

Italy, according to calculations by the National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts, would need 2.7 Earths compared to 5.1 in the United States, 4.5 in Australia and 3.4 in Russia while, according to another calculation, Italy would need 5.3 Earths to meet its residents’ demand for nature, placing it only second after Japan with 7.9.

According to calculations, humanity is “using nature 1.75 times faster than our planet’s biocapacity can regenerate,” which is equivalent to “using the resources of 1.75 Earths.” The ecological footprint is among the most comprehensive indicators available to date for accounting for biological resources, the organization reiterates, and it sums up all of people’s competing demands for biologically productive areas: food, timber, fiber, carbon sequestration and infrastructure accommodation. Currently, carbon emissions from fossil fuels make up 61 percent of humanity’s Ecological Footprint.