DI Digest Idea 4 Jan 96

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Press Review LitScan	4. Ecological Debt Everyone knows Southern countries owe huge financial debts to the North. But new questions are being asked about the ecological debt the North may owe to the South, given the high international material flows required to feed the mighty economic appetite of industrialized nations. Third World resource extractions for export carry not just a monetary price tag, they also draw down the ecological capital of exporting nations. William Rees at the University of British Columbia calls the underlying phenomenon the'ecological footprint' of industrialized countries on less industrialized ones. Kenyan journalist Hilary Ng'weno and many others have long promoted the ecological debt idea, in an effort to give due recognition for the South's considerable environmental 'loans' to the rest of humanity. But only recently, as international ecological understanding increases, is the notion being treated with much seriousness. [the consumption-related debt of industrializednations]
	ecological footprint n. area of productive land required to maintain a population's consumption level. ecological rucksack n. volume of material throughput required to maintain a consumption level. Associated with Germany's Wuppertal Institute and the idea of ecological modernization to reduce material flows.
In Depth	Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees. Our Ecological Footprint. reducing human impact on the Earth. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers.1996. 160 p.
	Not Hot - Cutting Development Aid to the South
	The world's poorer nations have reason for concern. The US Congress is considering a 50% cut in its development assistance budget, and many other donor countries' contributions are tied to the US one. A worst-case scenario would therefore involve a global halving of development assistance from North to South. All this at a time when international negotiations are emphasizing that, if anything, rich countries should be doing more to help finance the transition to sustainable development in poorer areas. Some US politicians believe that cutting their international development budgets will translate into economic growth at home. Yet total US development assistance to developing countries accounts for less than 0.1% of national spending, and plays an invaluable international relations function. Countless studies have also shown that development spending invariably results in net gains for donor countries from new trade relationships. Is the U.S. Congress's vision for global relations with poorer countries really so cynical?
*Virtual Ideas*	The Urban Age: Sustainable Cities in an Urbanizing World. http://www.oneworld.org/overviews/cities/girardet_urbanage.html

4. Ecological Debt

Not Hot - Cutting Development Aid to the South