In 1993, Ecological Debt Day fell on October 21. In 2003, Ecological Debt Day was on September 22. Given current trends in consumption, one thing is clear: Ecological Debt Day arrives a few days earlier each year.

"It is like having a bank account," Juan Carlos Morales of the independent think tank Global Footprint Network told Common Dreams. "If you don't have money available, you have to take out credit. We are depleting resources faster than Earth can regenerate."

Throughout most of history, humanity has used nature's resources to build cities and roads, to provide food and create products, and to absorb our carbon dioxide at a rate that was well within Earth's budget. In the mid-1970s, we crossed a critical threshold. Human consumption began outstripping what the planet could reproduce.