Saturday, April 15, 2006

Britian goes into 'ecological debt'

A study by the New Economics Foundation (Nef) and the Open University says 16 April is the day when the nation goes into "ecological debt" this year.
It warns if annual global consumption levels matched the UK's, it would take 3.1 Earths to meet the demand.
But bio-geography professor Philip Stott criticised the "doomsday report", arguing it would hit poorer nations.
"What we tend to have - not just with this report but alternative reports on the other side - are two theological positions," said Prof Stott, of London University.
"This one is the kind of Doomsday report - on the other hand the total free-traders are far too optimistic."
He went on: "If we did follow this report for example the damage to the Third World would be very great indeed because of course trade is the main dynamo of growth."
In 1961, the symbolic "ecological debt day" was 9 July; in 1981, it had shifted forward two months to 14 May.
The authors of the UK Interdependence Report hope to highlight the need to curb rising consumption levels.
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