Ecological debt

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Ecological debt is a term used to describe an imbalance between one's perceived "fair share" of natural resources and one's actual usage of those resources.

If you take more than your fair share of the earth's finite natural resources you run up an ecological debt. If you have a lifestyle that pushes an ecosystem beyond its ability to renew itself, you run up an ecological debt.

Global warming is probably the clearest example of an ecological debt. First World countries have become very rich by burning up our finite inheritance of fossil fuels, which has triggered climate change. Other parts of the world like Bangladesh, the South Pacific Islands and sub Saharan Africa are set to suffer excessively from global warming.

Around 80 per cent of the global economy still depends on coal, oil and gas and demand keeps rising. But, because we must burn less of these to stop climate change, the distribution of wealth in a carbon constrained world economy is the most fundamental issue we face.