This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supporting Information Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a colleague Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to My File Cabinet Download to citation manager Request Copyright Permission Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Google Scholar Articles by Srinivasan, U. T. Articles by Norgaard, R. B. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Srinivasan, U. T. Articles by Norgaard, R. B. Social Bookmarking                What's this?

 Previous Article  | Table of Contents |  Next Article 

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES / SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCE
The debt of nations and the distribution of ecological impacts from human activities

U. Thara Srinivasan^a,b, Susan P. Carey^c, Eric Hallstein^d, Paul A. T. Higgins^d,e, Amber C. Kerr^d, Laura E. Koteen^d, Adam B. Smith^d, Reg Watson^f, John Harte^c,d, and Richard B. Norgaard^d

^aPacific Ecoinformatics and Computational Ecology Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94703; ^dEnergy and Resources Group, 310 Barrows Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3050; ^cDepartment of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3114; ^eAmerican Meteorological Society, 1120 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20005-3826; and ^fSea Around Us Project, Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4

Communicated by Kirk R. Smith, University of California, Berkeley, CA, October 19, 2007 (received for review February 3, 2007)

As human impacts to the environment accelerate, disparities in the distribution of damages between rich and poor nations mount. Globally, environmental change is dramatically affecting the flow of ecosystem services, but the distribution of ecological damages and their driving forces has not been estimated. Here, we conservatively estimate the environmental costs of human activities over 1961–2000 in six major categories (climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, agricultural intensification and expansion, deforestation, overfishing, and mangrove conversion), quantitatively connecting costs borne by poor, middle-income, and rich nations to specific activities by each of these groups. Adjusting impact valuations for different standards of living across the groups as commonly practiced, we find striking imbalances. Climate change and ozone depletion impacts predicted for low-income nations have been overwhelmingly driven by emissions from the other two groups, a pattern also observed for overfishing damages indirectly driven by the consumption of fishery products. Indeed, through disproportionate emissions of greenhouse gases alone, the rich group may have imposed climate damages on the poor group greater than the latter's current foreign debt. Our analysis provides prima facie evidence for an uneven distribution pattern of damages across income groups. Moreover, our estimates of each group's share in various damaging activities are independent from controversies in environmental valuation methods. In a world increasingly connected ecologically and economically, our analysis is thus an early step toward reframing issues of environmental responsibility, development, and globalization in accordance with ecological costs.

ecological degradation | ecosystem change | ecosystem services | external cost

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0709562104/DC1.

^g The World Bank Group, World Development Indicators Database, http://publications.worldbank.org/WDI/indicators. Accessed September 28, 2006.

^h World Resources Institute, EarthTrends, http://earthtrends.wri.org. Accessed March 20, 2006.

ⁱ Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Sea Around Us Project, www.seaaroundus.org. Accessed June 5, 2006.

^j United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Statistical Databases, http://faostat.fao.org. Accessed March 20, 2006.

^k World Health Organization, Original Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2002 Estimates, www.who.int/healthinfo/bodgbd2002original/en/index.html. Accessed September 18, 2006.

^l World Resources Institute, Climate Analysis Indicators Tool, Version 3.0, http://cait.wri.org. Accessed October 3, 2006.

^m Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, EDGAR-HYDE 1.4, www.mnp.nl/edgar/model/100_year_emissions. Accessed December 1, 2006.

ⁿ UNEP Ozone Secretariat, Frequently Asked Questions, http://ozone.unep.org/Data_Reporting. Accessed November 2, 2006.

^o UNEP/Grid-Arendal, Climate Change 2001: Working Group I: The Scientific Basis www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/353.htm#933. Accessed November 13, 2006.

^p Northeast Fisheries Science Center, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Status of Fishery Resources off the Northeastern United States, www.nefsc.noaa.gov/sos. Accessed July 23, 2006.

^q United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database http://unstats.un.org/unsd/comtrade. Accessed September 5, 2006.

^bTo whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: utharas{at}gmail.com

© 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    What's this?

Current Issue | Archives | Online Submission | Info for Authors | Editorial Board | About Subscribe | Advertise | Contact | Site Map Copyright © 2008 by the National Academy of Sciences