2021 Earth Overshoot Day – It’s Time to Act

Published Jul 29, 2021

COVID has deeply impacted the way we live. In 2020, for the first time in decades, the global economy has used less natural resources. Were we at last starting to live in a more sustainable way?

The answer came today and it is bad news: today, July 29, is the Earth Overshoot Day this year, and it is one month earlier than last year!. Earth Overshoot Day is the day of the year human beings have consumed all the resources the Earth regenerates. The earlier this day comes, the harder it is to bounce back no matter how hard we may try.

We are still struggling with COVID but the world is opening up and we are hungry to get back to our daily consumption of nature’s gifts. We are back on track to use our yearly allotment of resources to the point of damaging our environment.

We are using up 74% more resources than our ecosystems can regenerate, i.e. 1.7 planet Earths. The improvement seen in our environment as we were stuck in our homes was short lived now that we are re-emerging.

The key reasons for this happening are unfortunately well known but difficult to solve without obstructing our comfortable ways of life. Increased CO2 emissions, deforestation, waste, pollution, and destruction of ecosystems and natural resources, and more contribute to the consumption of natural resources in a manner that damages Earth beyond repair. 

In particular, deforestation for agricultural use has increased by 43% compared to 2019. The Amazonian forest is in a dire situation, which may have huge ripple effects on the climate.

A few decades back, when society began talking about climate change, the threat still felt theoretical to many. Now that threat is palatable to all of us. The past few months have provided ample illustration of how dramatic climate change is: terrible droughts and wildfires in North America, sudden floods in Europe and Asia, melting of polar ice caps, and so much more. Climate change is here and now, and it is having increasingly terrifying impacts on livelihoods.

Solutions do exist and can be deployed at scale. It is now a matter of will to act. Many people, organizations and governments are taking initiatives to get there and imagine the future of agriculture and food production.

Gardyn is part of this movement. It is now possible to grow tons of food locally, indoors, in the comfort of your home. No green thumb, time, or space required. Your Gardyn Home does it all for you. This is a game changer: no more deforestation to grow crops, no more pesticides poured into the environment (or onto your plate), no more CO2 emissions to transport produce from far-away places. Food waste is reduced as plants keep thriving when you don’t eat them, and water waste is reduced as it consumes 95 percent less water than traditional agriculture.

Using the equivalent of 1.7 Earth’s resources every year is leading us to environmental  catastrophe. We need to evaluate our impact and make a change for the sake of our future generations.

How are you living sustainably on this year’s Earth Overshoot Day? #MovetheDate

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