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 gases 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. 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:
- Mitigation: finding compensatory ways of reducing the greenhouse debt so its effects are neutralised
- Adaptation: finding ways of adjusting to the resulting global warming or climate change
- Suffering: having one's quality of life reduced as a result of the consequences.
Famous quotes containing the words greenhouse and/or debt:
“There is not enough exercise in this way of life. I try to make up by active gymnastics before I dress when I get up, by walking rapidly in the lower hall and the greenhouse after each meal for perhaps five to ten minutes, and a good hand rubbing before going to bed. I eat moderately; drink one cup of coffee at breakfast and one cup of tea at lunch and no other stimulant. My health is now, and usually, excellent.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“However patriarchal the world, at home the child knows that his mother is the source of all power. The hand that rocks the cradle rules his world. . . . The son never forgets that he owes his life to his mother, not just the creation of it but the maintenance of it, and that he owes her a debt he cannot conceivably repay, but which she may call in at any time.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)