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ECOLOGICAL DEBT

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Title: ECOLOGICAL DEBT


1
  • ECOLOGICAL DEBT
  • WHO OWES WHO?

The North owes an Ecological Debt to the
South Produced by RCADE, Barcelona, 2002
2
  • CONTENTS
  • FIRST PART
  • Ecological Debt definition
  • Elements that constitute the Ecological Debt
  • SECOND PART
  • The relation between External debt and Ecological
    debt
  • Organizations that are working on the Ecological
    Debt
  • More information

3
DEFINITION
  • The Ecological Debt is the obligation and the
    responsibility that industrialized countries have
    towards Third World countries, because of the
    plunder of oil, minerals, forests, biodiversity,
    marine resources because of the occupation of
    their environmental space and the destruction and
    pollution of their natural capital and sources of
    subsistence.
  • It does not put a price to nature
  • It does not pretend to put environmental services
    on the market
  • It does not put a price to the right to pollute

4
ELEMENTS CONSTITUTING THE ECOLOGICAL DEBT
The pollution by industrialized countries because
of their disproportionate emissions of gases that
cause the increase in the greenhouse effect and
the deterioration of the ozone layer. The
illegitimate appropriation of the atmosphere and
of the carbon absorption capacity of oceans.
soils and vegetation.
?
Who owes who?
5
Who emits the CO2 that produces the climate
change?
The environmental services supplied by Southern
countries as owners of their proportional part
of atmosphere, oceans, soils and new vegetation
that absorb CO2 produced in Northern countries,
are not taken into account
  • THE CO2 EMISSION PER CAPITA OF A CITIZEN IN USA
    IS 15 TIMES LARGER THAN IN INDIA

Who owes who?
6
Who will suffer most from climate change?
The effects produced now and in future by climate
change on Southern countries (sea level raise,
increased hurricanes, stronger Niños...) are not
taken into account. This is a de facto
application of The Polluter DOES NOT PAY
Principle!!
Who owes who?
7
ELEMENTS CONSTITUTING THE ECOLOGICAL DEBT
The excessive extraction of natural resources
such as oil, gas, minerals, marine resources,
forests. These resources are exported without
taking into account social and environmental
damages. There is an ecologically unequal
exchange.
Who owes who?
8
THE TEXACO CASE (I)One example from Ecuador
http//www.texacorainforest.org
Who owes who?
9
TEXACO in Ecuador (II)
SOME FIGURES IN THE TEXACO CASE
  • Extraction of more than 1.500.000.000 barrels of
    oil in 20 years of activity in Ecuador 1970-90.
  • 1.000.000 hectares directly and indirectly
    destroyed in tropical forests
  • 16.800.000 gallons of oil leaked
  • 19.000.000.000 gallons of liquid wastes
    contaminating Amazonian rivers
  • 235.000.000.000 cubic feet of flared gas
  • 300 pools filled with toxic wastes
  • Irreversible damages in Siona, Secoya, Cofán,
    Quichua
  • and Huaorani settlements

Who owes who?
10
Many other cases of liabilities
by TNC
  • Under the Alien Torts Claims Act (of the United
    States) there have been many attempts to claim
    compensation from firms for damage done in other
    countries.
  • For instance, against Freeport McMoRan (Irian
    Jaya - West Papua)
  • Southern Peru Copper Corporation
  • Dow Chemical and other firms (DBCP in banana
    plantations)
  • Union Carbide (Bhopal)
  • Also European firms (Elf, Agip, Repsol, Shell,
    Rio Tinto) refuse environmental and social
    liabilities in their overseas operations.

Who owes who?
11
Who are the debtors?The energy case (I)
The environmental impacts caused by the
extraction of natural resources necessary for the
production of energy are not compensated in any
form
Who owes who?
12
Who are the debtors?The energy case (II)
The environmental impacts caused by the
extraction of natural resources for producing
energy are not compensated in any form
  • USA (5 of world population) consumes 25 of the
    world energy.
  • 2000 million people in developing countries have
    no access to electricity

Who owes who?
13
Other examples of overexploitation in order to
cover Northern countries consumption
Forced overexploitation by Northern countries is
exhausting Southern countries natural resources
  • A recent FAOs document affirms that among the 17
    world most important fisheries, 9 have been
    depleted. They have been mainly exploited by
    European and Japanese companies.
  • From 1991 to 1995, more than 11 of world
    forested areas have been lost. Even though
    deforestation has different causes, Southern
    countries are net exporters of wood to Northern
    countries. Often forests are depleted and then
    tree plantations (eucaliptus, oil palms) for
    export are introduced.

Who owes who?
14
ELEMENTS CONSTITUTING THE ECOLOGICAL DEBT
The intellectual appropriation and the
uncompensated use of ancestral knowledge related
to seeds, medicinal plants and other knowledge
that support biotechnology and modern
agroindustry .
?
15
EXAMPLES OF BIOPIRACY
The industrialized countries have stolen, and
keep stealing, knowledge and seeds of Southern
countries
  • http//www.grain.org/
  • http//www.rafi.org
  • Harpadol, a traditional plant of Namibia,
    Sudafrica and Bostwana. Only 0.06 of sales are
    for farmers. Companies of Southern Korea, Germany
    and USA claim for the property right of Harpadol.
    Many other examples (Sangre de Drago,
    Ayahuasca...). Also, old examples chinchona
    officinalis...
  • The tropical countries have maintained a high
    level of biodiversity. Many of the species used
    in pharmacy and agroindustry come from these
    countries, but they didnt get anything for this.

Who owes who?
16
ELEMENTS THAT CONSTITUTE THE ECOLOGICAL DEBT
The degradation of the best land, water, air and
human energy by exporting agriculture, which
jeopardizes the food security and sovereignty,
and the culture of local communities.
?
?
17
Switch to agriculture or aquaculture for exports
Southern countries have been forced to substitute
traditional agriculture or resource use by export
agriculture or aquaculture
Substitution of 70 of the mangroves in Ecuador
by shrimp farming for export
Increase of Niños impact because of reduction of
coast protection
Substitution of traditional agriculture in
fertile valleys in the Andes by flower production
for exports
Pollution in greenhouses, starvation in years of
scarce harvest
Who owe who?
18
ELEMENTS CONSTITUTING THE ECOLOGICAL DEBT
Toxic wastes carried to Third World countries
19
Some examples of waste transport (I)
Industrialized countries have contaminated, and
keep contaminating with their waste the
developing areas
Nuclear tests map
6.) Atoll of Mururoa (France) and other atolls
(UK) 220 tests 21.) Marshall Islands (US) -- 66
tests
Who owes who?
20
Some examples of waste transport(II)
Industrialized countries have contaminated, and
keep contaminating with their wastes the
developing areas
  • ALANG (INDIA) industrialized countries send out
    ships to be disassembled in this area. In 20
    years levels of pollution equivalent to an
    industrial area after 200 years of functioning
    have been reached

Who owes who?
21
Some examples of waste transport (III)
Industrialized countries have contaminated, and
keep contaminating, with their waste the
developing areas
  • http//www.greenpeace.org/toxics/index.html
  • NEPAL In 1998 70 tons of expired pesticide have
    been discovered. They have been imported under
    the indication development aid. Some with the
    labels of the USA embassy
  • PHILIPPINES Tons of toxic material have been
    discovered on some American military basis when
    they have been abandoned
  • PARAGUAY Delta Pine sent out lapsed polluted
    cotton seed, to Rincon-i - some deaths, illnesses
    in 1998.

Who owes who?
22
Relations between External debt and Ecological
debt
External Debt
Loans conditioned upon an adjustment plan
Plan to balance external accounts (including
payment of debt interests)
Restraint inflation
Reduction internal wages and social expenses
Improvement of the terms of trade (unlikely!)
Overexploitation of environment in order to
increase exportations
Increased technical efficiency
23
Summary - up to
now
24
  • Governments sometimes mistakenly oppose
    environmental protection for the sake of poverty
    alleviation.
  • They say, our priority is poverty, not the
    environment.
  • However, people have fought for livelihood and
    the environment (Chico Mendes, Medha Patkar, Ken
    Saro-Wiwa...).
  • THE WSSD IN JOHANNESBURG 2002 IS AN OPPORTUNITY
    FOR SOUTHERN GOVERNMENTS AND CIVIL SOCIETY TO
    PRESENT THE CLAIM FOR THE ECOLOGICAL DEBT. THIS
    WOULD SIMULTANEOUSLY HELP THE ECOLOGICAL
    ADJUSTMENT THAT THE NORTH MUST MAKE AND HELP WITH
    POVERTY ALLEVIATION IN THE SOUTH

25
Organizations that are working on the Ecological
Debt
  • Acción Ecológica Ecuador
  • http//www.ecuanex.net.ec/accion/
  • FOEI (Friends of Earth International)
  • http//www.foei.org/
  • Jubilee
  • http//www.jubilee2000uk.org/ecological_debt/eco_
    main.htm
  • .....
  • RCADE-Red de Denuncia de la Deuda Ecológica
  • http//www.rcade.org/comisiones/deudaecologica.htm

26
Last campaigns and meetings
27
More information on the Ecological Debt

http// www.cosmovisiones.com/DeudaEcologica/
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