30 July 2026 is Earth Overshoot Day for this year. As mentioned in the post during the COVID19 pandemic when earth overshoot day was pushed to 22 August 2020 due to the restrictions of lockdown:
Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity has
exhausted nature's budget for the year. For the rest of the year, we are
maintaining our ecological deficit by drawing down local resource stocks and
accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The result of overconsumption, extractive policies, overexploitation of resources, use-and-throw lifestyles, linear instead of circular economies and of course unsustainable development.
Perhaps there is a message that Earth Overshoot has been falling in July, a month observed as "Plastic Free July" centering a RE-Plastic (REplacing, REducing, REcycling & REusing Plastic) Lifestyle. Eschewing the throwaway (single-use/disposable/wasteful) culture will go a long way in extending natural resources longer into the year - thus delaying our dependence on resources of future years and generations.
Illustration Credit: Global Footprint Network 2026,
www.overshootday.org and www.footprintnetwork.org
With wars in multiple parts of the world literally burning through resources explosively, it seems counterintuitive that earth overshoot day is nearly a week later this year. While we would tend to pat ourselves in the back that last year's earth overshoot day fell on July 24th 2025 and in the Fire Horse Year 2026 it has been pushed back almost a week to July 30th 2026, it must be noted this is just an accounting correction due to "upward data revision in the Ocean Carbon Absorption" rather than significantly improved resource conservation and ecological restoration (see image below for AI summary of why this stretch happened):
See more at: https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/newsroom/country-overshoot-days/
If the whole world lived like Indians , we won't overshoot the earth's budget of annual ecological resources, see this DWTV's coverage of Earth Overshoot Day 2025:
Data Revisions: Upward adjustments to ocean
carbon-absorption metrics and minor account updates shifted the baseline
calculation 8 days later.
Real-World Change: Actual rising human consumption
widened the ecological deficit, pushing the date 2 days earlier.
Net Effect:
Combining the +8 day data correction and -2 day consumption acceleration
resulted in the net 6-day calendar delay.
True Trajectory: Despite the later
calendar date, resource consumption pressure worsened, making 2026 the highest
state of ecological overshoot to date.
As mentioned in the DWTV report, less waste, more recycling, reducing food waste, overconsumption and shifting to green energy all will help push back Earth Overshoot Day.
Thus centering a Circular Economy model, slow fashion, zero-waste, Net-Zero eco-conscious lifestyles - Sustainable Development - will make us live within our planetary resource budget. This way of life itself is Climate Action - SDG 13 as the ecological footprint and carbon footprint of our lives shrink. This is much needed in a world bearing the brunt of climate change.
It's easier said than done as there are entrenched systems that pushback on changes in consumption patterns. This video by creator AliMcForever "Burning Carbon" explains it succinctly:
Here's to hoping that we can shift to a more ecologically conscious and environmentally freindly way of life thus living within our planetary resource budgets!
While participating online at the First Asian Development Bank (ADB) Healthy Oceans Tech & Finance Forum: Innovations Solutions for Asia and the Pacific I gained insights on many on paths to Coastal & Ocean Resilience, especially in Asia-Pacific. With Wetlands being a key ecosystem covered and with World Wetlands Day (WWD) being observed on February 2, 2022 with the theme 'Wetlands
Action for People and Nature' it makes sense to highlight takeaways from the ADB Healthy Oceans Forum that focus on Wetlands and building coastal resilience.
Now, ADB has committed to raise funds to restore wetlands in the Asia-Pacific. In India, Maharashtra's wetlands as well as rural connectivity is being funded by ADB projects in collaboration with the state government. Previously ADB has helped bring back beaches, restore shorelines and revitalize the coastal zone in Ullal, Karnataka, through sustainable costal protection and management.
This project in itself and efforts to restore wetlands are big wins for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Also by building in Gender Equality into the framework of the ADB Blue Loans and Blue Bonds funded Blue Future, more women entrepreneurs and women-led initiatives are being offered funding for projects to improve ocean and coastal resilience and mainstream Blue Foods and sustainable aquaculture to boost the economy and ecology.
Wetlands include marsh, swamp and mire (bog and fen). A mangrove is a tide-influenced wetland complex and are bio-diverse carbon-fixing ecosystems at the borders of land and oceans. Thus restoring wetlands and building up coastal resilience by funding and empowering farmers, SMEs and the government can ensure climate action as well as all the other Global Goals. While forests are referred to as the lungs of the planet, wetlands are called the kidneys of planet. But both are vital organs essential for the health of the planets and its inhabitants.
I covered the Plastics-Free Oceans spotlight of the ADB Healthy Oceans in the January 2022 RE-plastic blog post. I have also covered the importance of Wetlands and WWD before (2021 & February 2020) in posts blogs. Revitalizing and restoring wetlands, which are being drained and destroyed faster than forests enables sequestering lots more carbon dioxide than just in forests (SDG13). If forests are slashed for farmland, wetlands are "reclaimed" to expand cities and enable the urban sprawl. Most of the world's capitals, metros and megacities are built on wetlands. Examples span from Washington, DC to Venice to Mumbai and Chennai. Be it South America's Pantanal or South Asia's Sunderbans as well as the mangroves and wetlands along major rivers or the confluence of rivers and great urban centres, these biodiverse wetlands that are our main defense from climate catastrophes are most at risk. They are being destroyed much faster than forests. At the
threshold of life on land (SDG15) and life below water (SDG14), their revitalization can revitalize the economy and empower the marginalized faster than most other efforts. The Coastal Resilience, Blue Foods and Ocean Finance streams of the ADB forum showcased many such restoration
examples and experts. ADB's 5 billion dollar Healthy Oceans Action Plan launched in May 2019 is a great beginning.
The Regenerative Blue Economy model powered by renewable energy (SDG 7) for Just Transition is a great path to sustainable development and climate resilience. Women-led mangrove re-planting and lake and flood-plains reclamation have had more community participation than purely government or corporate restoration projects. For People and Planet we need action for wetlands. And the designation of many wetland as Ramsar sites is a great step forward.
It's a new year, and as Lord Alfred Tennyson put it "Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come,
whispering, 'It will be happier'." Even as the Omicron variant of the pandemic that has plagued us from the beginning of this decade brings the world to its knees, hope persists that this year will be better for people and the planet and equally importantly for the planet's flora and fauna (biodiversity). Sustainable development and a circular economy approach is vital to revive the global economy battered by Covid and the Climate Crises in a sustainable manner.
The path to sustainable development is through adopting the circular economy model and closing the wasteful Take-Make-Waste production model. In a Circular Economy, systems are regenerative and integrative. The waste of one product becomes the raw material for another to close the loop. To adopt it and make the current requires systems thinking change as well as a change the operating system of the global economy and make it less wasteful.
To allow climate action and if we are to achieve the net-zero ambitions anytime, let alone by 2050, SDG12 - responsible production and consumption - must be top priority. This allows for processes to cut their carbon emission and reduce the ecological footprint of products and industries to avoid Earth Overshoot and keep within the planetary boundaries.
You can get a fuller explanation of Circular Economy from this Systems Innovation video:
There is an urgent need to stay within planetary boundaries of resources to avoid extinction level events and biodiversity loss. Beyond personal carbon footprint to community, industry, regional and national footprints as building blocks to keep within planetary boundaries. Already new estimates and studies indicate that we have already passed the safe limit for chemical pollution and plastics production, consumption and waste after single use are major culprits.
This is big and bleak news. The planetary boundary for chemical pollution (aka 'novel entities') has been quantified for the first time - and it's now clear that humanity is massively transgressing levels that are safe for life on Earth. Plastics! Read on. https://t.co/OEHWdSOX23pic.twitter.com/lAwgRG0y3G
You can read the full Twitter thread on the planetary boundary for chemical pollution (and the plastic effect) here. Food waste co-existing with millions of hungry people is another symptom of our wasteful economic system and it has to be addressed urgently to end world hunger (SDG 2), food-related lifestyle diseases, and provide the necessary nutrition for good health and well-being (SDG 3). Ensuring SDG12 and circular economy in the agricultural-agribusiness-food sector also ensures that this major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation is put in check ensuring climate action now (SDG 13). The catchy and information filled Food Waste Song from Australian Tik-Toker and comedian Benny Davis shows the way.
There is wastefulness everywhere and the current system churns out emissions and pollution at every stage. Even as individuals and concerned consumers and citizens take action to reduce their personal carbon footprint, we hear of the sheer wastefulness from certain sectors and the super-rich and the powers-that-be. Take for example: Fast fashion trash is piling up in Chile's Atacama Desert where it is disposed and luxury brands are burning and shredding product rather then sell it cheap. They all continue to manufacture products unchecked but control supply and create artificial scarcity by wasteful methods to increase prices and the desire for the perceived "exclusive" products among their super-rich and wanna-be [rich] customers. Another example is news of airlines flying empty flights (ghost flights), emitting tons of emission without benefitting any traveler just to maintain their airport slots during the pandemic caused international flight bans. The sheer carelessness of the sector when the climate conscious are cutting down their use of flights (flygskam - flight shaming) and even giving up flying as a mode of travel. When you hear such news about ghost flights, world leaders and business leaders summit hopping in private jets, and billionaire space races, one feels flygskam aimed at the average citizen is a bit of a scam.
This is the time of the year for the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos, where the movers and shakers of the world rub shoulder and maintain the status quo by setting and shaping the world to suit their agenda. This year, for the second time consecutively because of the pandemic WEF is being held virtually thus cutting the event's carbon footprint. This crisp review of the book Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World also spreads the blame to the millions of consumers who fund the billionaire lifestyles. We are trapped and manipulated by convenience and brain-washing into choosing to make them richer exceeding our personal budgets and planetary boundaries for resources.
Yet there is power is personal choice and collective action. Consumer and citizen power collective action all about personal choices can offset billionaire effect so act to reduce your personal carbon footprint and get others to do the same. Let us not allow what happens in Don't Look Up to become our permanent reality vis-Ã -vis the climate crisis. Give the Global Goals a chance to bolster the future outlook. Truly build back better. An opportunity to survive and thrive amid the existential pandemic threat. that is pressurizing us now.
Tracking and cutting your personal carbon footprint and getting others to do it too and adopt a sustainable lifestyle can make a huge difference.
In this the second year of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) buffeted by COVID and Climate Catastrophe, there is an urgent need to Invest in our Planet. Perhaps it is apt that this [Invest in Our Planet] is the theme for Earth Day 2022 (April 22). The need for an Earthshot (named after another world-changing project - the Apollo Moon
landings, nicknamed Moonshot. They helped advance mankind's technological
achievements and ... help improve life for
everyone).
Sustainable habits, citizen action to make communities sustainable (SDG 11: sustainable cities and communities), grassroots approach to ensure sustainable development and circular economy is the path to climate action and economic recovery (SDG 8) in our current reality (COVID-19 + Climate Change).
Composting, homesteading, buying local and direct from farms and gardens, promoting regenerative systems and agriculture, choosing energy independence through renewable energy sources, rain water harvesting and grey-water recycling for water security at family, community and city levels, building community gardens and food forests, saving the soil and seeds thus building a community of active citizens who work to bring forth climate-friendly and eco-friendly policies and politicians is a great continuum for planet- and people-friendly change. Using personal consumer, citizen and community power to invest in the planet is my hope for 2022 and beyond. It is an expressway to the global goals and achievement of sustainable development through creation of circular economies.
The big deal in October 2021 includes two environmental conference of parties (COP) separated by the first ever Earthshot Prize ceremony and the International Day of Climate Action.
Between the two avenues for rhetoric the finalists and winners of Earthshot Prize with their innovative solutions for the problems that plague our planet offer hope in this the first year of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. They are icons to be celebrated o f the Day of Climate Action and beyond in order to bridge the climate rhetoric-climate reality divide.
The first COP to occur in October was the first part of the Biodiversity COP15 that took place online between October 11th and 15th, online among the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. With China as chair, this was a forerunner to the second-part of the COP15 - the in-person session scheduled to happen in Kunming between April 25th and May 8th 2022. With the Chinese premiere giving the Climate COP in Glasgow beginning on Halloween 2021 a miss, this Biodiversity COP15 was where China flexed its environmental muscle. With the 6th Mass Extinction and immeasurable and irreplaceable biodiversity loss being part of our reality, made worse by the nightmare of the climate crisis manifesting the world over with particularly devastating effects in the poorer, island, coastal and tropical parts of the world, the need to act to protect biodiversity and address climate change is existentially vital. Thus it makes sense that in between the two COPs on October 19th, the million-pound Earthshot Prize ceremony to honor the 5 climate heroes - Eco-Oscars as it were, was hosted by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in Alexandra Palace, in London. This competition for the Royal Foundation's five million-pound prizes was launched mid-pandemic in 2020 by Prince William to give Earth a shot in the arm and address five critical issues and the five winners addressed these innovatively and effectively
(1) 'the
restoration and protection of nature' - Costa Rica, (2) 'air cleanliness' - Takachar, India (3) 'ocean revival' - CoralVita - Bahamas, (4) 'waste-free living' - The Food[Waste] Hubs of the City of Milan, Italy & (5) 'climate action' - Hydrogen producing Enapter's AEM electrolyser (Thailand, Germany, Italy).
Key takeaways from the Online UN Biodiversity COP15 include world leaders acknowledging certain facts but not taking much action:
(1) As Nature's Decline Threatens Humanity, We Must Work to Reverse Biodiversity Loss; (2) Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework: Understanding the Scope and Scale of the Biodiversity Crisis; (3) Kunming Declaration - a commitment to protect 30% of land and sea area by 2030 [30-30] (4) Gap between promises of biodiversity protection and any real or effective climate action (5) Need for Global Biodiversity Fund. The difficulty in actually achieving the much needed 30-30 protection in the face of so-called "economic realities" - the pandemic-fuelled global economic slowdown and resultant domino of energy crises and economic crisis that put environmental crises on the back burner even though it costs nations billions of dollars they can't afford.
Case in point, according to a World Meteorological Organization report, the natural disasters in 2020 cost India $87 billion, i.e., ₹65 Lakh Crores.
As I predicted in my article for the Chennai Centre for China Studies (C3S) in September, not much can be expected from COP15 in the face of geopolitical and human security concerns. The main agenda of COP15 included positioning China as an environmental force to be reckoned with, showcase of Chinese success stories in biodiversity protection and its Red Line Plan as well as paving the way for a much-needed multi-billion dollar Global Biodiversity Fund even though it will take a long time for countries to make and honor these commitments.
With these gaps in rhetoric and reality in mind, perhaps it becomes clear why the International Day for Climate Action 2021, October 24th, doesn't have the same prestige or reach of say Earth Day or Environment Day. The Fridays for Future movement is more impactful. and in a way as long as there is real climate action, it doesn't really matter if we celebrate the Day of Climate Action widely or not! And this is where it is hoped that the Climate COP26 to be held in Glasgow between October 31st and November 12th will make a dent in ensuring that world leaders and corporations commit to climate action and limiting carbon emissions. The real scary thing on Halloween 2021 will be the cost in emissions and money that the world is spending on what many believe is an eye-wash of a "greenwashing" conference hoping for a better outcome!
So ahead of COP26 here's a checklist to keep in mind while assessing the Climate COP26 that begins on Halloween:
Now let's get into the specifics. @climate's set out the priorities for what to look out for at #COP26.
1. Higher commitments from countries 2. Rules for a global carbon market 3. $100 billion in finance for developing countries 4. Reducing coal use 5. Reducing methane emissions
Among the Hindu communities across the globe, today is observed as the birthday of Lord Ganapathi, the remover of obstacles and God of Wisdom & Knowledge in the Hindu pantheon.
As the deity who can remove all barriers, any endeavor started after praying to him is believed to go smoothly as he adds a divine inspiration.
At this first year of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (2021-30) and as India celebrates 75 years of Independence and begins a year-long global and national celebration of "Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav" - #IndiaAt75, here's dreaming of a utopian India where all the sustainable development goals (SDGs) are met. May Lord Vignesh - "vign harta" help us all reach this goal. And in the spirit of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the Sanskrit
phrase repeated in Hindu texts such as the Maha Upanishad, meaning "the
world is one family", let us work towards this goal of a world and India where the SDGs are a reality by the grace of the birthday boy - Ganapathi Bappa!
#SDG1 An India free of poverty
#SDG2 An India free of hunger
#SDG3 An India free of illness - physical or mental
#SDG4 An India free of illiteracy & functional illiteracy, empowered by accessible Quality Education for all
#SDG5 An India free of Gender injustice & GBV where true Gender Equality is the norm
#SDG6 An India free of water poverty - Clean water & sanitation for all
#SDG7 An India free of Energy poverty - Clean & Affordable electricity & fuel for us all
#SDG8 An India empowered by Decent Work & Economic Growth
#SDG9 Indian Industry & Indian Infrastructure empowered by Indian Innovation
#SDG10 An India independent of inequality
#SDG11 An India of Sustainable Cities & Communities
#SDG12 An India free of overconsumption, waste & irresponsible production - An India independent of SUPs & plastics
#SDG13 An India made vibrant with Climate Action
#SDG14 An India of thriving water bodies, seas & ocean life
#SDG15 Life & Flora, Fauna, Ecosystems thriving on Indian land
#SDG16 A peaceful & just India with strong institutions leading the way to true freedom & independence from injustice
#SDG17 - My dream for India is my dream for the world, because Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam - a utopia where we all work to make our world a better place - True partnerships for progress.
