Science meets YouTube

Earth Overshoot Day, which this year takes place on 1 August, symbolises the calendar date on humanity's consumption of resources for the year exceeds the Earth's capacity to regenerate them. So for the rest of the year we humans are living on credit, as it were.

Bettina Münch-Epple, Head of WWF Germany's Education Department, says: "We're taking our planet to the edge, and with it ourselves and subsequent generations. So we must now act in unison to change our behaviour. Since young people are particularly affected by the decisions taken today, it is them our new campaign will be targeting. To this end, we decided to bring together young people, scientists and influencers."

 

Julia Althoff, Manager Mesh Collective (UFA X), adds: "All of us at Mesh Collective are extremely passionate about fostering sustainability, conserving natural resources and safeguarding the future of our planet. So, we're very happy to use social videos to spotlight ecological issues in the course of the campaign in a bid to reach people who've previously not thought very much about their carbon footprint or environmental behaviour. By bringing in big-name social video personalities to take part in the campaign and create a basis for identifying with its aims, we'll be encouraging people, in a fun way, to take their first ecological steps and, while we're at it, also suggesting specific steps they can take."

For the #EarthOvershootDay campaign, sponsored by the Robert Bosch Foundation, one group of young people in a workshop devoted to the overarching question "How can I live within the limits of our planet?" identified the topics that matter most to them. In a second step, scientists took up the issues raised by the youngsters. Finally, this combined input was channelled to the YouTubers, each of whom covers one topic in a video.

Earth Overshoot Day will kick off with Mr Trashpack, who takes a look at his own CO2 emissions on his YouTube channel, explains about extreme weather and spends 24 hours out in the wilderness. On a regular basis over the coming year, more videos will be published, dealing with issues like the plastics in our oceans, meat consumption, sustainable fashion, the circular economy and glacial melting. Other influencers involved in the campaign alongside Mr Trashpack include BreedingUnicorns, DeChangeman, Niksda, RobBubble, I’m Jette, Typisch Sissy, Dillan White and FräuleinChaos.