El Ciudadano
Original article: Chile entra en sobregiro ecológico el 7 de mayo y nuevamente es el primer país de la región en alcanzarlo
On Thursday, May 7, Chile will once again enter an ecological deficit, occurring 10 days earlier than recorded in 2025, marking its status as the country in Latin America with the earliest environmental «point of overshoot» for the seventh consecutive year.
The international organization WWF reminded us that «Ecological Overshoot Day is estimated by the Global Footprint Network (GFN) and marks the date when humanity’s demand on nature exceeds what the planet can regenerate in a year, if everyone lived like Chileans.»
«Therefore, if the global population adopted a lifestyle similar to that of Chileans, we would need 2.9 Earths to sustain that way of life,» the environmental NGO added.
Ricardo Bosshard, director of WWF Chile, explained that «indicators like Ecological Overshoot may not capture every detail of reality, but they are one of the most robust approaches available to understand trends. What they indicate is clear: we are exerting increasing pressure on ecosystems in a context where nature has limits.»
«Chile has been overshooting its ecological budget before reaching mid-year for years, which is not just a statistical detail, but a warning sign that should mobilize society as a whole. We need to continue advancing in nature conservation, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and pollution reduction,» Bosshard emphasized.
How Ecological Overshoot is Estimated by Country
Taking a broader view of the Americas, GFN data for 2026 indicates that Chile’s ecological overshoot is only surpassed by Canada (March 8) and the United States (March 14) in terms of the earliest overshoot date on the continental level.
Moreover, alongside this unfortunate milestone, the GFN also calculates a complementary indicator, Deficit Day, which is the estimated date when the inhabitants of a country have used up the resources that their ecosystems can sustainably regenerate within a year.
This is the point in the calendar when the ecological footprint of the country starts to exceed its own biocapacity. For Chile, its Deficit Day will be on September 27, the day when the country will have consumed all the resources that its ecosystems can regenerate in the year.
«It is the moment when the domestic ecological footprint surpasses national biocapacity, which is composed of forests, coastal areas, wetlands, and productive soils. The remainder of the year, until December 31, is covered at the expense of depleting natural resources or through the importation of biocapacity from other countries: food, materials, energy,» WWF officials pointed out.
Ricardo Bosshard noted that this distinction is particularly significant in a context of growing global overshoot, where competition for natural resources intensifies and countries that rely on imported biocapacity become increasingly vulnerable to global market instability and climate change consequences.
«For Chile, progressing in ecosystem restoration, sustainable fisheries management, decarbonizing the economy, nature-based solutions, and effective conservation of protected areas is not just an environmental responsibility but also a condition for the country’s long-term security and resilience,» concluded the WWF representative in Chile.
El Ciudadano
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