Monday, October 09, 2006

Commence the borrowing

As noted in today's The Independent, today the world begins borrowing from the past and future rather than living upon its ecological means. Say what, you ask? Borrowing an idea from libertarian anti-tax groups, which calculate and note which day each year the average person has earned enough to pay their annual tax liability (and so begins to accumulate money for themselves rather than the government), the Global Footprint Network has calculated the day on which humanity consumes the last sustainable unit of ecological capacity (including both the capacity to generate renewable natural resources and to absorb wastes) and so begins either drawing down the planet's stored energy resources (in the form of fossil fuels, which is a form of borrowing from the ecological capacity of the past) or polluting and depleting natural capital (which borrows from future ecological capacity). Quoting from that story:

In other words, assuming that the world has a certain quantity of natural resources that can sustainably be used up each year, today is the date at which this annual capacity is reached. And environmentalists warn that just as a company bound for bankruptcy plunging into the red or a borrower " maxing out" on credit cards must face the consequences, so must man.

As we begin plunging into the ecological red, can we take any comfort in the fact that this day comes substantially later in the year than does "Freedom from Taxation" day? After all, what we are now earning as income is ours to keep, and what we spend through our consumption belongs to someone else. What could be better than that?