Posted August 03, 2017 14:17:56

Photo: At current rates, we use the resources of 1.7 Earths each year, according to the Global Footprint Network. (Supplied: NOAA-NASA-GOES Project/ Michael Benson, Kinetikon Pictures)

There is a date every year when the world's resource bank goes into overdraft.

This year, Earth Overshoot Day is marked globally on August 2. For the rest of year we're in the burning red.

It's the point when the amount of natural resources — think trees, fish and water — humanity takes from the Earth reaches the total that can be regenerated over the entire year.

It's when the amount of carbon emitted reaches the amount the forests and oceans are able to absorb.

This year it happened in seven months, according to the Global Footprint Network.

That's the earliest it's ever been and it's no thanks to Australia.

Infographic: Data of the world's resources against its resource demands is tracked over time showing the Earth Overshoot Day marks since 1969. (Supplied: Global Footprint Network)

If every country in the world lived like Australia, Earth Overshoot Day would have been on March 12.

Infographic: If everyone lived like Australians, we would need 5.2 Earths for every year of life. (Supplied: Global Footprint Network)

If you reckon that's not your debt, you can calculate how you are personally tracking via the Footprint calculator and then compare it to the national date.

We were at a break-even point in 1971 and even had a surplus before that (the UN started collecting this data in 1961).

Since then, the date has been creeping further from December — we're demanding more from the Earth while reducing its capacity to regenerate.

The Global Footprint Network calculates each year's overshoot day.

The equation has four main factors:

1. How much we consume
2. How efficiently products are made
3. How many of us there are
4. How much nature's ecosystems are able to produce.

According to their calculations, we're using the resources of 1.7 planets every year.

To reign in our ecological spending, we'd need to push Earth Overshoot Day back 4.5 days each year to be living within our single-planet means by 2050.

Infographic: A look at overshoot days by country. Australia is earliest among the countries with available data, following Luxembourg and Qatar. (Supplied: Global Footprint Network)

Topics: climate-change, environment, energy, science-and-technology, australia