- The 30th of July 2026 is Earth Overshoot Day: the exact date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services exceeds what the Earth can regenerate in this entire calendar year.
- For Australia, the overshoot date was even earlier, on 29 March, indicating how much our affluent lifestyle (including fossil fuel use) is draining global ecological resources.
- Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) concludes that a sustainable future requires reducing the size of entire human enterprise on Earth. This century, there is a narrowing window of opportunity to achieve an outcome to avoid ecological collapse.
Peter Strachan – National President:
“Australians are living as if they have access to the resources of more than 4 planet earths!”
“The fact that we are in ecological overshoot is one more good reason why Australia’s population growth should end.”
“Our ecological footprint is driven by two factors: the level of consumption (or economic activity) and population size. Every increase in population adds pressure to our already overloaded continent and planet.”
“Australia’s housing and rental crisis, traffic congestion – these are just symptoms of a deeper crisis of the ecological processes in our forests, in the oceans and the atmosphere, which are what sustains human life.”
Michael Bayliss – Spokesperson and Communications Manager
“Since 1972, the global population of human consumers and emitters has more than doubled to be 8.3 billion. Unsurprisingly, oil consumption has also doubled while copper use is up nearly 5-fold, but sadly the Earth has remained the same size!”
“Evidence, in the form of an increasing occurrence of extreme weather events, as well as potentially existential global conflict, indicates that failure to act now will see nature extract a terrible toll on human society.”
“According to York University’s Ecological Footprint Initiative, ever since 1972, when the human population was 3.8 billion, the global human population has been larger than that to which the Earth can deliver resources sustainably. This year, with 8.3 billion people, that milestone passes on the 30th of July.”
“Once humans moved from burning wood and making charcoal to burning peat and coal in the 17th Century, the dye was set for depletion and an unsustainable future, driven by rapid population growth and rising affluence.”
“Realistically, extraction of any finite, non-renewable minerals, especially hydrocarbons, which are consumed, is unsustainable over a long enough time horizon.”
“Even sand extraction – a crucial resource in construction – is ultimately unsustainable. Removing millions of tonnes of sand from river deltas globally has led to massive erosion of productive farmland, especially as up-stream damming reduces flows and sedimentation.”
“Energy consuming technologies may be efficient, but ultimately, they consume more finite resources. SPA says that an essential component of long-term sustainability is a lower human population.”
