Greenhouse debt
Encyclopedia
Greenhouse debt or carbon debt is the measure to which an individual person, incorporated association, business enterprise, government instrumentality or geographic community exceeds its permitted greenhouse
footprint
and contributes greenhouse gas
es that contribute to global warming
and climate change
.
The concept makes no sense without a clear numerical value for the permitted greenhouse
footprint
. It is not clear what this value is.
Friends of the Earth
and similar organisations put forward the concept to define specifically the environmental harm caused by developed countries' past and present policies. Some governments, at least the Australian Labor
leadership, have a tendency to accept such a line of reasoning.
The greenhouse debt assessment thus forms an ecological footprint
analysis, but can be used separately. Taken conjointly with a water debt analysis and an ecological impact assessment
, greenhouse debt analysis is basic to giving individuals, organisations, governments and communities an understanding of the effects they are having on Gaia
, life
, global warming
and the resulting climate change
. Ensuring that the greenhouse debt is zero is essential towards achieving Ecologically Sustainable Development
or a sustainable retreat
. Any greenhouse debt incurred will contribute to making life harder for the future generations of humans and non-human lifeforms to come.
There are three possible consequences that occur as a result of a greenhouse debt. They are either:
Greenhouse gas
A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
footprint
Ecological footprint
The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet's ecological capacity to regenerate. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to...
and contributes greenhouse gas
Greenhouse gas
A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
es that contribute to global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
and climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
.
The concept makes no sense without a clear numerical value for the permitted greenhouse
Greenhouse gas
A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
footprint
Ecological footprint
The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet's ecological capacity to regenerate. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to...
. It is not clear what this value is.
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth International is an international network of environmental organizations in 76 countries.FOEI is assisted by a small secretariat which provides support for the network and its agreed major campaigns...
and similar organisations put forward the concept to define specifically the environmental harm caused by developed countries' past and present policies. Some governments, at least the Australian Labor
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
leadership, have a tendency to accept such a line of reasoning.
The greenhouse debt assessment thus forms an ecological footprint
Ecological footprint
The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet's ecological capacity to regenerate. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to...
analysis, but can be used separately. Taken conjointly with a water debt analysis and an ecological impact assessment
Environmental impact assessment
An environmental impact assessment is an assessment of the possible positive or negative impact that a proposed project may have on the environment, together consisting of the natural, social and economic aspects....
, greenhouse debt analysis is basic to giving individuals, organisations, governments and communities an understanding of the effects they are having on Gaia
Gaia hypothesis
The Gaia hypothesis, also known as Gaia theory or Gaia principle, proposes that all organisms and their inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet.The scientific investigation of the...
, life
Life
Life is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased , or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate...
, global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
and the resulting climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
. Ensuring that the greenhouse debt is zero is essential towards achieving Ecologically Sustainable Development
Ecologically sustainable development
Ecologically sustainable development is the environmental component of sustainable development. It can be achieved partially through the use of the precautionary principle, namely that if there are threats of serious or irreversible environmental damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not...
or a sustainable retreat
Sustainable retreat
Sustainable retreat is a concept developed by independent research scientist Dr. James Lovelock, who is well known in ecological circles for developing the Gaia theory, in order to define the necessary changes to human settlement and dwelling at the global scale with the purpose of adapting to...
. Any greenhouse debt incurred will contribute to making life harder for the future generations of humans and non-human lifeforms to come.
There are three possible consequences that occur as a result of a greenhouse debt. They are either:
- MitigationMitigation of global warmingClimate change mitigation is action to decrease the intensity of radiative forcing in order to reduce the potential effects of global warming. Mitigation is distinguished from adaptation to global warming, which involves acting to tolerate the effects of global warming...
: finding compensatory ways of reducing the greenhouse debt so its effects are neutralised - AdaptationAdaptationAn adaptation in biology is a trait with a current functional role in the life history of an organism that is maintained and evolved by means of natural selection. An adaptation refers to both the current state of being adapted and to the dynamic evolutionary process that leads to the adaptation....
: finding ways of adjusting to the resulting global warming or climate change - SufferingSufferingSuffering, or pain in a broad sense, is an individual's basic affective experience of unpleasantness and aversion associated with harm or threat of harm. Suffering may be qualified as physical or mental. It may come in all degrees of intensity, from mild to intolerable. Factors of duration and...
: having one's quality of life reduced as a result of the consequences.