Question #2: Final Task

Environmental Overdraft or Ecological Debt

An ecological debt and environmental overdraft are both terms used to describe a situation where the rate of consumption of resources is greater than the rate at which the resources are produced. In today’s world society has already over consumed the available natural resources. The first Ecological Debt Day was observed on December 19, 1987. This day signifies the time, as mentioned earlier, when humanity consumes a greater amount of non renewable resources than the Earth can produce. The definition also explains the terms mentioned at the beginning. Once this day has passed society is in debt to the ecology. Overdraft means “excessive drawing off something” (“Overdraft”) which suggests that that we’ve been drawing on Earths resources in unnecessary amounts, hence the name.
This dreaded debt day has gotten earlier and earlier every year, In 2009, the day was observed on September 25, a whole two months before the first Ecological Debt Day! We’ve been gifted with an extraordinary number of resources,, but this doesn’t mean we can abuse them. Without these resources we would not have achieved all that we have. How would we go on without the resources which shape our very existence? But these resources are a package deal, they come with the Earth. Using up the resources given to us and making our Earth sick will ultimately lead to our own destruction.
We were provided with this beautiful planet, the only one in the solar system on which life can survive but we continue to exploit it. Using more than we were given was not part of the deal. We cannot begin to comprehend this amazing thing we call life, and our Earth allows us live it. What happens if the Earth disappeared? If it no longer existed then neither would we. We have so much going for us right now and I think that we all understand that by killing the Earth we are killing ourselves. So why do we keep doing it?

How does it Help to Use Economic Terms when Dealing with Environmental Issues?

We continue to destroy our planet because of our insatiability. “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed” said Mahatma Gandhi in his time and he is still right today. The Earth gives us enough to survive but not so much that we can live extravagantly, wasting resources through unnecessary trade, over production ,and construction of needless buildings, homes and malls. We live like there is no limit, but there is one. We just don’t want to see it before it is too late.
We use economic terms when dealing with environmental issues because they are both interconnected. We depend on the planet to maintain our economy as it provides the resources which our economy is based upon. When we think about the value of a product, you think ‘how much money is this worth?’ Money is backed up by gold or silver, resources of our Earth. They are worth something to all of us, and they form the way we live our lives. We are always going through monetary transactions which allow us to purchase food, clothing, shelter, water, and other basic necessities. These necessities have been created by the resources on this planet.
When resources are limited the value of these resources increases resulting in less products being made and provided to the public. This means that there is less money in circulation as people do not consume as much and those who produce don’t make as much money. This goes in a cycle until something changes and the economy picks back up again. The Great Depression is an example of an economy which crashed. During the depression the value of the dollar dropped dramatically as people started buying gold and the demand for natural resources increased.

These natural resources have made mankind rich. The two concepts are very closely related; as we develop we earn more, providing more jobs and products, but at the same time we destroy our environment. To move forward we’ve been tearing down the very thing which has given us the ability and resources to begin the process of development. Through industrialization we produce more and put more money into circulation, as mentioned above. We cut down rainforests to make way for factories, we breed and then kill, we wring the Earth dry in search of oil, and so much more. All of this contributes positively to the development of our world but negatively to the health of our world. So now we must ask ourselves, is development a new beginning or the end?