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Ecological Debt

Origins

The origin of the term ecological debt was largely centered on the relationship between northern industrialized countries and their exploitation of Southern American countries. The term originated during the 1992 UNCED conference in Rio de Janiero, when grassroots groups and NGOs came together to form the Global Forum. They were negotiating for treaties that would lead to a more sustainable world. One of the treaties in particular, the Debt Treaty, uses the term ecological debt for the first time in an international context. This treaty stated that the industrialized countries to the north should be held responsible for accruing ecological debt by exploiting the environment, and more specifically, Southern American resources.

More unofficially, the term was first used in the 1990s in the literature published by a Chilean NGO, the Instituto de Ecologia Politica. Their publications discussed how damage to the ozone layer inflicted by the unsustainable practices of northern industrialized countries led to health risks of the people living in Southern Chile in particular. They claimed that the northern countries were in an ecological debt to the southern countries on account of their damage to the environment, their plundering of resources, and waste deposits.

In a broader context, ecological debt refers to the amount of resources a population is consuming above the earth’s biocapacity. It is a way of saying that the human population is living beyond its ecological means. Ecological debt is accumulated when pollutants are emitted faster than the earth can absorb them or when the earth’s resources are consumed at a more rapid pace than what can naturally be replenished.

This overconsumption has many costs. Since the 1970s, human’s consumption surpassed what was naturally produced or replenished by the environment. This overconsumption results in climate change, loss of biodiversity, higher commodity prices, and civil unrest. At current consumption rates, 1.5 earths would be needed to provide enough resources to maintain our consumption levels.

Worldwide Levels of Ecological Debt

Currently, only 14% of the world’s population lives in countries with excess biocapacity . Biocapacity refers to the rate at which the earth can naturally absorb pollutants and regenerate its resources. Having excess biocapacity means that the country’s activities can adequately be supported by its domestic biocapacity. As an example, countries such as China and Italy are in much more ecological debt than Brazil or Canada. This is not only due to the fact that the countries “in the red” could have a low biocapacity or country size to begin with, but also because they could be large consumers of the world’s resources. A country like Brazil has an entirely different usage of its land than a country like Japan. Because there is a lot more room for farming, hunting, and fishing, the biocapacity of Brazil is very high.

National Ecological Footprint of Consumption Compared to Total Biocapacity

Land Usage of Brazil, High Biocapacity

Some specific examples of countries that are in the red, and how many countries would be required to sustain its footprint are listed below.

• China’s consumption requires 2.2 Chinas to support it
• Japan’s consumption requires 7.0 Japans to support it
• United States’ consumption requires 1.9 United States to support it
• United Arab Emirates’ consumption requires 12.3 United Arab Emirates to support it
• United Kingdom’s consumption requires 3.3 United Kingdoms to support it

Earth Overshoot Day

Earth Overshoot Day, or Ecological Debt Day, is the day calculated by the Global Footprint Network that estimates when the world’s population will exhaust earth’s natural “budget” for the year. While this date is an estimate, the Global Footprint Network believes that because of the wealth of data at their fingertips, their calculation only has a 15% margin of error. To calculate this number, they divide the world’s biocapacity by its ecological footprint and multiply by 365 days. While Earth Overshoot Day is meant to act more as an approximation than a precise date, the general trend is illustrating that the world’s population continues to demand more from the earth than it can provide, and our relationship with the earth is becoming increasingly unsustainable.

Quantifying Ecological Debt

Ecological debt is most easily quantifiable using the Global Footprint Network’s method of calculating the Ecological Footprint. This tool is used to measure how much of the earth’s bioproductive land and water area a population is using in order to provide enough resources for consumption or to absorb wastes generated by human development. These footprints are measured in global hectares, which are hectares that have been standardized to reflect the average productivity of all bioproductive land on the earth. If resources are taken from one country to be exported to another, the country that ultimately consumes the resources will hold that debt in their footprint.

Attempts to monetize ecological debt are less standardized and attempts to do so still receive many critiques. For example, a study in 1999 attempted to put a price on carbon debt. Since there is no current market for carbon, they decided to base their price on the market price of oil. They ended up pricing carbon at $175 per ton, but that is simply the face value of the carbon. Many of these efforts that attempt to monetize ecological debt fail to adequately account for the social or environmental externalities caused by the exploitation of resources, or the effects that damage will have on future generations.

It is hard to say to whom exactly a debt is owed, and how much that debt amounts to. Figuring out how much ecological debt a population is in is not as easy as looking at a spreadsheet full of dollars and cents. No matter what the scientists can calculate footprint wise, the true ecological cost is as much qualitative as it is quantitative.

Ecological Debt Today

Types of Ecological Debt

There are three types of ecological debt that are recognized today. Ecological debt can be generated by a country, a generation, or a private company.

• Public debt: an ecological debt a country has towards other countries
• Generational debt: an ecological debt a nation has toward future generations in its own country
• Private debt: an ecological debt a private company has towards a defined group of people

It is important to note that these different types of ecological debt are, oftentimes, working together. This makes it incredibly difficult to distinguish where the debt has come from, since it is usually a combination of public, generational and private debt. This raises many political and ethical questions because it is difficult to pinpoint who is responsible for the quantities of ecological debt in a country and in the world.

Chevron's Ecological Debt in Ecuador

An example of private debt is Chevron is Ecuador. In 2012 Chevron was found guilty of damages linked to their oil extraction in Ecuador. It was found that 17 million gallons of crude oil and 20 billion gallons of drilling wastewater were placed into ponds throughout the country of Ecuador.

Due to the large amount of damage the company has caused within the country— including health and agriculture issues— one can say that Chevron is privately ecologically indebted to the people of Ecuador.

Solutions and Actions to Reduce Ecological Debt

Most of the initiatives to reduce ecological debt are focused on avoiding creating new ecological debt. However, the Southern Peoples Ecological Debt Creditors Alliance (SPEDCA), has a list of demands that it makes to Northern countries. Some of these demands come with a historical perspective while the others look to the future with preventative measures.

• Restoring natural areas that were damaged by mining and agriculture
• Repairing destroyed cultural and natural heritage, which includes genetic materials
• Decreasing carbon emissions and destructive competition
• Eliminating all weapons that produce toxins that threaten the planet; including conventional, nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons
• Recognize that poor people are often displaced and give them rights

Politics of Ecological Debt

There is a large ongoing debate about the politics of ecological debt and who should be held more accountable. Often, the debate is centered on whether developed or developing countries should bear the burden of this debt. Since a large ecological footprint is often associated with high levels of development, it is difficult for developed and developing countries to avoid increasing their debt if they are looking to develop or maintain their development.

Human Welfare and Ecological Footprint

It can be said that most of the developed countries are the ones who have put the planet in this state of debt. These countries, which are often significantly wealthier than their developing counterparts, are disproportionately utilizing environmental space or services without proper payment. Luckily, high-income countries have a financial advantage. With this advantage, they are able to shield themselves from the effects of their resource dependence in other countries.

Developing countries export many raw materials as a large part of their economic development. However, these resources are sold at prices which do not include compensation for the local and global impacts that their removal has.

The conversation is, however, moving towards focusing on individuals and institutions and how they can make an impact. Since decisions about ecological debt are considered an after thought most of the time, there is a movement to making ecological debt considerations central to all decision making processes. Learning to live within the Earth’s bounds is a challenge that companies and countries are starting to understand.