If everyone in the world lived and operated like we do in Germany, as of May 2, 2024, the budget for sustainably usable resources and ecologically tolerable emissions for the entire year would have been depleted.
The German Earth Overshoot Day marks the date from which, until the end of the year, we are effectively incurring debt to others. This includes debt to people in the Global South, who consume far less than their fair share, as well as to children and future generations who must cope with the consequences of decades-long overuse. This day is calculated annually by the Global Footprint Network (GFN).
“The German Earth Overshoot Day is a reminder that we must change the conditions in all areas now so that sustainable behavior becomes the new normal”, said Aylin Lehnert, an education officer at Germanwatch. “We need a new debt brake, one that applies to our overburdening of the Earth.” While the Earth Overshoot caused by Germany has been slightly decreasing since 2010, it is happening far too slowly. Fourteen years ago, according to GFN calculations, 3.3 Earths would have been needed if everyone lived and operated as people do here; today, it is still 3 Earths.
Destruction of Forests Twice the Size of Hamburg
The still very high consumption of meat and other animal products significantly affects the use of natural resources. In Germany, about 60% of agricultural land is used for the production of feed. Konstantinos Tsilimekis, an expert on global nutrition and land use at Germanwatch, explains:
“56% of the grain produced locally goes into feed troughs. Since domestic feed is still not sufficient to meet local demand, extensive areas abroad are also heavily utilized—in 2022, for example, 3.4 million tons of soy were imported to Germany for animal feed. The cultivation of such feed has been a central driver of forest destruction and biodiversity loss for decades. From 2016 to 2018 alone, the destruction of 138,000 hectares of tropical forest worldwide was linked to consumption in Germany. That's almost twice the size of a major city like Hamburg. To significantly reduce the destruction of natural areas and also restore valuable local areas such as peat bogs, we need to reduce the number of livestock and consume more of the food we grow directly”, said Tsilimekis.
Recent studies from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) show that a global shift to a sustainable, low-meat diet could significantly increase the chances of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Tsilimekis also refers to recommendations like those from the German Nutrition Society: “Eating fewer animal products and a plant-based diet not only conserve the environment but also the climate and our health.”
Achieving a healthier and more resource-conserving diet isn't just a matter of appeals. “It's a political task to create more sustainable offerings in communal catering, like canteens, and tax incentives for plant-based foods.” At the same time, viable business models must also be developed together with farmers. “A good starting point for this could be the recently initiated 'Chances program for farms' by the federal government, which aims to help farmers transition from livestock farming to the production of protein-rich plant-based and climate-friendly foods”, said Tsilimekis.
