Sustainability: An Ethical Challenge: The Overexploitation of the Planet as an Exemplary Case

Abstract

Earth Overshoot Day is used as an exemplary case to suggest actions to obtain better compliance between the ecological footprints and biocapacities of the world’s regions. This study was based on the Global Footprint Network’s free public data on Earth Overshoot Day. The analyses of the data applied a partial ordering methodology in combination with the so-called Philosophy Model, leading to a joint ranking of the regions based on the simultaneous inclusion of ecological footprint data and data on biocapacities. The ranking was topped by South America, whereas North America and the Middle East/Central Asia were at the bottom of the list. Biocapacity was found to be the most important ranking indicator. Thus, doubling the biocapacity for each region would, on a global scale, lead to a population reserve of approx. 1.5 billion, whereas a halving of the individual ecological footprint would still lead to a population deficit of approximately 1 billion. The footprints and the biocapacities are composed of six and five sub-indicators, respectively, and the carbon footprint together with the built-up land footprint is the most important sub-indicator. To comply with the corresponding available biocapacity, significant reductions in the carbon footprint are needed, close to 50% for high-income countries. The ethical issues, as well as their interconnection with the Sustainable Development Goals, were discussed, with a focus on carbon footprints and well-being, as well as educating women, as illustrative cases.