Earth Overshoot Day: we need a more sustainable diet

I was recently contacted by the German television broadcaster ZDF with a request for an interview on the importance of our diet for sustainability. The occasion for their TV report is the global Earth Overshoot Day, whose date is calculated anew every year. This year it is August 1. On this day, human consumption outstrips the resources nature can regenerate within a year. However, if the entire world population lived and did business the way we do in Germany, the date would have been May 2, 2024, and we would need three Earths to cover our current excess demand. Even if the calculation of such days can be questioned, their symbolic power generates a lot of media coverage. As a researcher, I always have to be very brief in such interviews, so here I would like to use my answers to the journalists’ questions as an opportunity for a blog post on the subject of nutrition.