According to Global Footprint Network’s calculations, it has taken humanity less than nine months to exhaust its ecological budget for the year. The gap between demand and supply is growing and this over consumption of the eological budget leads to climate change, bio diversity loss, deforestation, water and food shortages.

Later this year AFRODAD will publish three studies about ecological debt, and these will look at the unequal distribution and usage of the ecological budget. These studies will ask who owes whom and look at debt in a broader perspective, not just the debt originating from financial loans. When looking at the extraction of resources and climate change the traditional creditors become the ecological debtors.

Read more about the Earth Over shoot day on www.footprintnetwork.org/earthovershootday and sign up for the AFRODAD newsletter by sending an email to ingrid(a)afrodad.co.zw to get information about AFRODAD’s upcoming publications.

In a round table meeting in New York in the beginning of August, advocate groups discussed the need to address Africa's worsening debt crisis. According to the most current numbers from the IMF and World Bank, sub-Saharan Africa has over $231 billion in external debt. Though the region receives $10 billion dollars in aid per year, it loses more than $14 billion in debt payments annually. AFRODAD was part of this meeting as a part of a US tour to advocate for a Fair and Transparent Arbitration Mechanism. Read more on AllAfrica http://allafrica.com/stories/201008161147.html.