The planet’s resources available for this year would end this Friday, if everyone in the world consumed like the European Union (EU)which is “unsustainable and irresponsible”, according to environmental organizations.
With the so-called “Planet Overload Day” for the EU to be reached this Friday, More than 300 civil society organizations urge European Union leaders to “address the nature, climate and pollution crises after the next European elections”.
Open letter to politicians
The signatories call on the heads of state and government, the presidents of the Commission, the Council and the EU Parliament, and MEPs, “to take on the political commitment to working towards a climate-neutral economywith zero pollution and positive for nature”.
They emphasize in the document that if the world’s populations followed the EU’s consumption patterns, humanity would begin this Friday to consume on credit, using resources that should only be used next year.
The open letter, the organizations say, follows “the unprecedented and worrying setbacks in ecological policies in recent months”, with “its instrumentalization for short-term electoral gains”.
According to the subscribing organizations, political decision-makers need to deepen and speed up the European Green Dealradically increase public investments in climate, environment and social justice, and “strengthen EU governance, democracy and the effective participation of civil society”.
Three planets were needed just for EU consumption
Remembering that societies and economies depend on what nature provides, from food and water to wood and other materials, in addition to carbon absorption, the organizations emphasize that although the EU represents only 7% of the world’s population, it would take three planets to satisfy demand if everyone on Earth lived like Europeans.
The consequences of this unsustainable consumption include global deforestation, loss of biodiversity, collapse of fish stocks, water scarcity and pollution, soil erosion, air pollution and climate change.
To the climate change is causing extreme weather phenomena more frequentlywith Europe on track for temperature increases twice those of other continents, they warn.
Remembering that there is European elections next monththe signatories of the letter say that the election is the great opportunity to reverse the situation, making the planet’s triple crisis a political priority: climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution.
Portugal improves, Qatar is the worst
O calculation to determine the day of the planet’s overload is made by the international organization “Global Footprint Network“.
Portugal reaches the end of its resources on the 28th for this year, which means that if everyone on the planet lived like the Portuguese, resources for this year would be exhausted on that day. Last year Portugal exhausted its resources for the year earlier, on May 7.
According to the “Global Footprint Network” this year the first country to exhaust resources was Qatar, on February 11followed by Luxembourg, on the 20th, the United Arab Emirates, on March 4th, and the United States, on March 14th.
The last countries to exhaust their resources will be Ecuador and Indonesia, on November 24.
