NEW: The 2026 Happy Planet Index is live

Explore the data
This article was originally published on https://www.dw.com/en

Earth has already exceeded 2024 annual ecological limits

Published January, 2025

Earth has already exceeded 2024 annual ecological limits By Alistair Walsh, DW, 8th January 2025

https://happyplanetindex.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/alif-photo-QCLM_elSEXM-unsplash-scaled.jpg

Humanity has exceeded its sustainable consumption limit for 2024, according to the US-based environment NGO Global Footprint Network. According to its calculations, if we continue to carry on using up our natural resources at this level, we would need the equivalent of 1.7 Earths to provide enough resources to accommodate our consumption. So-called overshoot days occur when a country’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year, the biocapacity, exceeds what the…

Read the full article on https://www.dw.com/en

Alistair Walsh


Warning: Attempt to read property "term_id" on false in /var/www/hpi_wordpress/wp-content/themes/hpi/src/app.php on line 364

How sustainably happy are you?

We've built a personal Happy Planet Index test to help you reflect on how you can create your own "good life that doesn't cost the earth".

Take the test

Fatal error: Uncaught JSMin_UnterminatedRegExpException: JSMin: Unterminated RegExp at byte 132241: /.test(c.value),i=c=>!isNaN(parseFloat(c.value))&&isFinite(c.value),n=c=>Object.prototype.toString.call(c.value)==="[object String]";return{isPresent:t,isEmail:e,isNumber:i,isString:n,isValidCurrencyCode:c=>n(c)&&c.value.length==3,isValidCountryCode:c=>n(c)&&c.value.length==2,isCheckboxChecked:c=>c.checked}}(),hs=function(){let t=document.getElementById("newsletter-sign-up"),e={};const i=()=>{n()},n=()=>{ne(t,"submit",g=>{g.preventDefault(),c(),s()})},s=()=>{let g={fname:t.elements["newsletter-fname"],lname:t.elements["newsletter-lname"],email:t.elements["newsletter-email"],weallConsent:t.elements["newsletter-consent"],message:t.elements.message};r(g)&&y(g)},r=g=>{let u=!0;return Object.keys(g).forEach(p=>{l(p,g[p],g)||(u=!1)}),u},l=(g,u,p)=>{let E=!1;switch(g){case"fname":return E=Rt.isPresent(u),E||o("fname","Please enter your first name",u),E;case"email":return E=Rt.isPresent(u)&&Rt.isEmail(u),E||o("email","Please enter a valid email address",u),E;case"weallConsent":case"nicConsent":return console.log(p),p.weallConsent.checked?E=!0:o("consent","Please check the box to sign up"),E;default:return!0}},c=()=>{let g=t.querySelectorAll(".error-help");Array.from(g).forEach(p=>p.remove());let u=t.querySelectorAll(".is-error");Array.from(u).forEach(p=>Ye(p,"is-error")),e={}},o=(g,u,p=null)=>{e[g]||(p?m(g,u,p):f(g,u),e[g]=u)},m=(g,u,p)=>{He(p,"is-error");let E=p.parentNode,T=document.createElement("span");T.className="error-help",T.innerText=u,E.appendChild(T)},f=(g,u)=>{let p=t.querySelector(".js-form-error"),E=document.createElement("span");E.className="error-help",E.innerText=u,p.appendChild(E)},y=g=>{x(!0),w({fname:g.fname.value,lname:g.lname.value,email:g.email.value,weallConsent:g.weallConsent.checked,honey:g.message.value}).then(u=>{if(!u.ok)throw new Error("There was an error submitting your details, please try again.");return u.json()}).then(u=>{if(u.error)throw new Error(u.error);S(t)}).finally(()=>{x(!1)}).catch(u=>{f("http",u)})},S=(g,u,p)=>{g.innerHTML=` in /var/www/hpi_wordpress/wp-content/plugins/autoptimize/classes/external/php/jsmin.php:264 Stack trace: #0 /var/www/hpi_wordpress/wp-content/plugins/autoptimize/classes/external/php/jsmin.php(150): JSMin->action(1) #1 /var/www/hpi_wordpress/wp-content/plugins/autoptimize/classes/external/php/jsmin.php(84): JSMin->min() #2 /var/www/hpi_wordpress/wp-content/plugins/autoptimize/classes/autoptimizeScripts.php(843): JSMin::minify('var we="top",_e...') #3 /var/www/hpi_wordpress/wp-content/plugins/autoptimize/classes/autoptimizeScripts.php(402): autoptimizeScripts->minify_single('/var/www/hpi_wo...') #4 /var/www/hpi_wordpress/wp-content/plugins/autoptimize/classes/autoptimizeMain.php(591): autoptimizeScripts->read(Array) #5 [internal function]: autoptimizeMain->end_buffering(' <!doctype htm...', 9) #6 /var/www/hpi_wordpress/wp-includes/functions.php(5581): ob_end_flush() #7 /var/www/hpi_wordpress/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(353): wp_ob_end_flush_all('') #8 /var/www/hpi_wordpress/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(377): WP_Hook->apply_filters('', Array) #9 /var/www/hpi_wordpress/wp-includes/plugin.php(523): WP_Hook->do_action(Array) #10 /var/www/hpi_wordpress/wp-includes/load.php(1308): do_action('shutdown') #11 [internal function]: shutdown_action_hook() #12 {main} thrown in /var/www/hpi_wordpress/wp-content/plugins/autoptimize/classes/external/php/jsmin.php on line 264