Earth Overshoot Day arrives as energy companies announce massive profits

We have reached the day when we have used up all the resources the planet can regenerate in a year, a sign of the high-price the public is paying while companies show off financial results, writes Harry Cockburn

Deforestation in the Amazon is a particularly visible example of humanity demanding more from nature than our planet can support (Getty)

Woah, we’re halfway there / Woah, we’re livin’ on a prayer", sang Bon Jovi in his hit song about a couple struggling to make ends meet. But the line also perfectly encapsulates Earth Overshoot Day – we’re just over halfway through the year, we’ve used up our allowance of natural resources, and there’s only a sketchy plan for the future.

This year, Earth Overshoot Day falls on 28 July. The exact definition of the marker is "the date when humanity has used all the biological resources that Earth regenerates during the entire year".

Beyond this point, we’re overusing finite resources and undermining the ecological structures which make life on our planet possible.