Earth Overshoot Day to fall on 2 August 2017
Earth Overshoot Day, the date on which humans will have used up more environmental resources than the earth can replace each year, will fall on 2 August in 2107. The date, which has been moving forward each year, was first calculated for 1987 when it fell on 19 December. This year’s date means that during the first seven months of the year alone, humans have emitted more carbon than can be absorbed by oceans and forests in a year and have caught more fish, cut down more trees and consumed more water than can be replaced in that period.

The Earth is a pretty amazing thing. Every year, it regenerates an enormous amount of the environmental resources – water, soil and clean air – that we humans use up. But in the last few decades we've started using substantially more of those resources than can be replaced every year.

That's why, in 1986, environmental groups began calculating the day each year on which we go over our limit and start living on credit. This year, the day falls on August 2. "By August 2, 2017, we will have used more from nature than our planet can renew in the whole year," the WWF and Global Footprint Network said in a statement.

"In other words, humanity is currently using nature 1.7 times faster than ecosystems can regenerate. This is akin to using 1.7 Earths. This means that in seven months, we emitted more carbon than the oceans and forests can absorb in a year, we caught more fish, felled more trees, harvested more, and consumed more water than the Earth was able to produce in the same period."

Earlier and earlier

The milestone arrives earlier and earlier every year. In 1987, the first year it was calculated for, it fell on December 19. In 1995 it was November 21. In 2007 it was October 26. About 60% of humanity's ecological 'footprint' comes from burning coal, oil and gas.

Individual countries have their own Overshoot Days. Australia hits it on March 12, the United States a couple of days later, and the UK on May 4. You can find data for your country on the Overshoot Day website .

There is a silver lining to this bad news, though. The rate at which Earth Overshoot Day is moving up the calendar is slowing down, the groups say. To slow that rate further, we (meaning: you) need to eat less meat, burn less fuel and cut back on food waste.