VODO, Belgium

What is ecological debt ?

Ecological debt is a different way of understanding international economic relations. The idea of ecological debt has several historical roots and various expressions. Though rising in awareness it is not a new concept. In the nineteenth century observers of the British empire noted that "all parts of the world are ransacked for the Englishman's table." In the 1960s Georg Borgstrom shone a light on the "ghost acres" that countries such as Britain depended on in other lands to feed their people. Britain required an even larger area of land overseas to meet domestic demand than it had under cultivation at home.

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