Ecological debt

Ecological debt is a term used since 1992 by some environmental organizations from the South. The first one to use this term was the Instituto de Ecologia Politica from Chile (M.L.Robleto and W. Marcelo, Deuda Ecologica, IEP, Santiago de Chile, 1992). J.M. Borrero, from Colombia, a lawyer, wrote a book on the ecological debt in 1994 (J.M.Borrero, La Deuda Ecologica, FIPMA, Cali 1994). This referred to the environmental liabilities of Northern countries for the excessive per capita production of greenhouse gases, historically and at present. Campaigns on the Ecological Debt were launched since 1997 by Accion Ecologica of Ecuador and Friends of the Earth as documented in www.deudaecologica.org

Academic work on calculations of the Ecological Debt came later. A remarkable article with the title "The debt of nations and the distribution of ecological impacts from human activities" was published by U. Thara Srinivasan et al. (from Berkeley) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2008, 105(5):1768-1773.

In the context of campaigns (like Jubilee 2000) against payment by impoverished countries of excessive amounts of external debt, the ecological debt movement raised the slogan, "we are creditors, not debtors".

Studies were produced at regional level also. For instance, S. Khatua and W. Stanley, "Ecological Debt: a case study from Orissa, India" (2006) http://www.ecologicaldebt.org/publicaciones/Chapter5(125-168).pdf

Many government officials from relatively poor countries have pointed out at meetings on Climate Change that the principle of shared responsibility demands that rich nations go beyond donations or adaptation credits and make reparations that recognize their Ecological Debt for excessive emissions over several decades. The top US ambassador to the COP in Copenhagen in December 2009, Todd Stern, flatly rejected arguments by diplomats from poor lands that the United States owed a debt to developing nations for decades of American emissions that contributed to climate disruption. (A.C.Reukin & T. Zeller, New York Times, 9 Dec. 2009). However, Prof. Jagdish Bhagwati, in the Financial Times, 22 Febr.2010, defended the notion of the Ecological Debt pointing out that "the U.S. in addressing domestic pollution created the superfund after the Love Canal incident, where a successful tort action was filed against Pacific Gas & Electric in 1996 (...). Under the superfund legislation, hazardous waste has to be eliminated by the offending company. This tort liability is also "strict", such that it exists even if the material discharged was not known at the time to be hazardous(...). Rejecting this legal tradition in U.S. domestic pollution, Todd Stern, the principal U.S. negotiator, refused to concede any liability for past emissions (...). Evidently, the U.S. needs to reverse this stand. Each of the rich countries needs to accept a tort liability which can be pro rata to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change-estimated share of historic world carbon emissions". http://www.cfr.org/publication/21512/new_approach_to_tackling...

Ecological Debt has been applied to highlight the disparity between industrialized nations, which consume a greater share of the global resource pool, and developing nations, who despite their greater share of the global population, consume less resources and produce less waste. As described by J. Martinez-Alier (The Environmentalism of the Poor, 2002, p. 213), the Ecological Debt has two origins: First, the exports of raw materials and other products from relatively poor countries or regions sold at prices which neither include regeneration nor compensation for local or global externalities. This includes "biopiracy", stealing biological resources. Second, rich countries or regions make a disproportionate use of environmental space or services without payment, and even without recognition of other people’s entitlements to such services (particularly, the disproportionate free use of the oceans and atmosphere to diposit carbon dioxide).

Ecological Debt has been used to describe the consumption of resources from within an ecosystem that exceeds the system's regenerative capacity. This is seen in particular in non-renewable resources wherein consumption outstrips production. In a general sense, it can be used refer to the overall depletion of global resources beyond the Earth's ability to regenerate them. The concept in this sense is based on the bio-physical carrying capacity of an ecosystem; through measuring ecological footprints human society can determine the rate at which it is depleting natural resources. Ultimately, the imperative of sustainability requires human society to live within the means of the ecological system to support life over the long term. Ecological debt is a feature of unsustainable economic systems.

The concept of ecological debt is the basis for Ecological Debt Day (Earth Overshoot Day), the date upon which the sum of global annually renewable resources has been consumed for the year. This is calculated using the global ecological footprint (the total area required to sustainably feed consumption), divided the global bio-capacity (the amount of area available to feed that consumption), multiplied by 365 (the number of days in a year). The first Ecological Debt Day occurred in 1987, and has steadily been moving earlier into the year, being October 9 in 2006, and September 23 in 2008.

Resources

Books

Ecological debt: the health of the planet and the wealth of nations, Andrew Simms, Pluto books, 2005

Reports

J. Timmons Roberts and Bradley C. Parks, 2009, “Ecologically Unequal Exchange, Ecological Debt, and Climate Justice: The History and Implications of Three Related Ideas for a New Social Movement.” International Journal of Comparative Sociology Vol 50(3–4): 381–408.

Towards a Level Playing Field, Repaying Ecological Debt, or Making Environmental Space: Three Stories about International Environmental Cooperation, Osgoode Hall Law Journal,2005, VOL 43; NUMB 1/2, pages 137-170
Elaboration of the concept of ecological debt, Centre for Sustainable Development, Ghent University, 2004
Credit Where it's Due: The Ecological Debt Education Project, Friends of the Earth Scotland, 2003
Who owes who?: Climate change, debt, equity and survival, Christian Aid, 1999
North-South Relations and the Ecological Debt: Asserting a Counter-Hegemonic Discourse, Critical Sociology, 2009, VOL 35(2); pages 225-252

External links

• Global Footprint Network - Ecological Debt Day
• New Economics Foundation - Ecological Debt Day
• European Network for the recognition of the Ecological Debt
• World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002 - Ecological Debt
• Who owes who?, a movie

See also

• Carbon footprint
• Carrying capacity
• Ecological economics
• Ecological footprint
• Limits to Growth