WE ARE NO DEBTORS! WE ARE CREDITORS OF A HISTORICAL, SOCIAL AND ECOLOGICAL DEBT!
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Recession barely dents 'eco-debt' AND COMMNENT |
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Friday, 23 October 2009 |
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Such a shame that both NEF and Global Footprints Network mis-use the
term ecological debt when they mean "exceeded carrying capacity".
the term "ecological debt" was already established much further back as a
way of describing the North's debt to the South for various kinds of
environmental exploitation.
I've raised this important semantic misuse with the Footprints people
and they don't give a damn...
Patrick Bond (sent to CJN! List)
> Recession barely dents 'eco-debt'
> By Judith Burns
> Science and environment reporter, BBC News
>
> shopper in supermarket
> The world first went into "ecological debt" in 1980, according to Nef
>
> The recession has had little impact on humanity's over-consumption of
> resources, says a report.
>
> The New Economics Foundation (Nef) calculates the day each year when the
> world goes into "ecological debt."
>
> This is the date by which humanity has used the quantity of natural
> resources that ought to last an entire year if used at a sustainable rate.
>
> This year, "ecological debt day" falls on 25 September - just one day
> later than in 2008.
>
> According to Nef, this means that the biggest recession for nearly a
> century has made very little difference to global consumption.
>
> The report, entitled The Consumption Explosion: the Third UK
> Interpendence Day Report, asserts that the overall trend of our
> collective ecological footprint is deeply negative, with humanity still
> environmentally over-extending itself to a dangerous degree.
>
> Debt-fuelled
>
> Andrew Simms, Nef policy director and co-author of the report, said:
> "Debt-fuelled over-consumption not only brought the financial system to
> the edge of collapse, it is pushing many of our natural life support
> systems toward a precipice.
>
> "Politicians tell us to get back to business as usual; but if we
> bankrupt critical ecosystems, no amount of government spending will
> bring them back.
>
> "We need a radically different approach to rich world consumption."
>
> Calling for an end to the consumption explosion, he said that while
> billions in poorer countries subsist, "we (in the rich West) consume
> vastly more, and yet with little or nothing to show for it in terms of
> greater life satisfaction."
>
> The report calls for an end in particular to what it calls "boomerang
> trade", where countries simultaneously import and export similar goods.
>
> For example, the report says the UK imports 22,000 tonnes of potatoes
> from Egypt and exports 27,000 tonnes back the other way.
>
> While 5,000 tonnes of toilet paper heads to Germany from the UK, more
> than 4,000 tonnes is imported back.
>
> The report calls for us to pay the full environmental cost of transport,
> and calls for more investment in renewable energy.
>
> It also rejects suggestions that reducing the size of the Earth's human
> population would help the environment, claiming this focus is a critical
> distraction from tackling over-consumption in wealthy countries.
>
> It points out that one person in the US will, by 4am on the morning of 2
> January, already have been responsible for emitting as much carbon as
> someone living in Tanzania would generate in an entire year.
>
> It says that a UK citizen would reach the same position by 7pm on 4 January.
>
> Nef used figures from the Global Footprint Network to make its calculations.
> BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Recession barely dents 'eco-debt' (25
> September 2009)
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8273791.stm
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