Earth Overshoot Day: We've Already Used Up All of the Planet's Resources for 2017

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As of Wednesday, we have used up all of the Earth's resources for 2017 and are now in overdraft for the rest of the year.

Each year since 1986, the World Wildlife Foundation and the Global Footprint Network have calculated the day when humanity will have used up the year's allotment of planetary resources — a day they call Earth Overshoot Day.

For this year, that day came on Wednesday, and it's the earliest it has ever arrived.

"By Aug. 2, 2017, we will have used more from nature than our planet can renew in the whole year," the organizations said in a statement. "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."

According to the organizations, it would take 1.7 planets to produce enough to meet humanity's needs at current consumption rates.

To give it some perspective on how quickly things have changed, in 1993, Overshoot Day fell on Oct. 21, in 2003 on Sept. 22, and in 2015 on Aug. 13.

The good news, however, is the advance of Earth Overshoot Day has slowed down.

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A look at the world's ecological footprint through the years.

(overshootday.org)

The organizations note that individuals can help slow down and conceivably reverse the trend by eating less meat, burning less fuel, and cutting back on food waste, said the report.

“Our planet is finite, but human possibilities are not. Living within the means of one planet is technologically possible, financially beneficial, and our only chance for a prosperous future,” said Mathis Wackernagel, CEO of Global Footprint Network and co-creator of the Ecological Footprint.

The organizations have also created a calculator so individuals can appreciate their own personal ecological footprint on Earth.

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Severe drought reveals the remains of a tree on the banks of the Madeira River near Nova Olinda do Norte, Brazil, Oct. 21, 2005. (© Daniel Beltrá, courtesy of Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago )

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