![Logo for [VertigO] La revue électronique en sciences de l’environnement](/en/journals/vertigo/logo.jpg){kind=logo}
Abstracts
Résumé
Nous proposons une assise éthique au concept émergent à l’échelle internationale de « dette écologique ». Nous faisons l’hypothèse que les nouvelles générations de philosophes de l’environnement devront conjuguer la catastrophe, non pas au futur antérieur, comme le font Hans Jonas ou Jean-Pierre Dupuy, mais au conditionnel passé. Il ne s’agit plus de travailler avec la « mémoire du futur », mais de retravailler les potentialités futures du passé, de réexplorer la mémoire écologique des catastrophes en cours et passées pour refonder les normes du vivre futur. Or, la notion de dette écologique nous invite précisément à repenser l’éthique environnementale à partir des fautes du passé.
L’impératif d’une responsabilité environnementale des générations présentes envers les générations futures se double de la reconnaissance inéluctable d’une dette écologique immense due aux générations présentes par les générations passées. Nous est-il dès lors possible de l’annuler, ou pour le dire plus directement, de pardonner ? Mais pardonner la catastrophe, n’est-ce pas par là même abdiquer toute responsabilité future, briser l’échange intergénérationnel et renoncer à tout espoir d’une éthique environnementale globale ?
Après un rappel historique de la genèse de ce concept que l’on peut définir empiriquement comme l’ensemble des atteintes aux milieux naturels exercées par des humains dans le passé, nous explicitons un modèle de responsabilité passée contrefactuelle que nous discutons de manière théorique ainsi que de manière appliquée autour de deux exemples de dette écologique, une dette territorialisée et privée concernant des pollutions industrielles et une dette globalisée et publique impliquant l’émission de gaz à effet de serre.
Mots-clés :
- dette écologique,
- éthique environnementale,
- justice intergénérationnelle,
- économie écologique,
- catastrophisme,
- gestion des ressources naturelle,
- changement climatique,
- pollutions industrielles,
- échanges Nord-Sud
Abstract
We propose an ethical background to the internationally emergent concept of “ecological debt”. We assume that the new generation of environmental philosophers will have to think the catastrophe, not on a future perfect mode like Jean-Pierre Dupuy or Hans Jonas’ theories, but on a past conditional mode. We refuse Dupuy’s “memory of the future” in order to reexplore the ecological memories of past and current catastrophes as a way to discuss the norms for the future. The notion of ecological debt invites us precisely to discuss a new environmental ethics based on past ecological faults.
The imperative of an environmental responsibility from present generations towards future generations goes necessarily along with the acknowledgement of a massive ecological debt left by past generations to the present generation. Is it possible, not to say mandatory, to cancel and forgive this debt ? But, is forgiving the catastrophe not leading us to renounce to any consistent responsibility between generations and to miss the opportunity to reach a global and efficient environmental ethics ?
After an historical reminder of the genesis of the notion of ecological debt, which can be defined as the totality of past environmental damages due to human activity and not compensated until the present, we put forward a model of past counterfactual responsibility both on a theoretical and a practical level. Eventually, two applied examples are discussed : one about a private and territorialized industrial debt due to decades of pollutions, and another one about a public and global debt, the climate debt.
Keywords:
- ecological debt,
- environmental ethics,
- intergenerational justice,
- ecological economics,
- catastrophism,
- natural resources management,
- climatic change,
- industrial pollutions,
- North-South exchange
Download the article in PDF to read it. Download
Appendices
Bibliographie
-
Afeissa H.-S., 2009, Qu’est-ce que l’écologie, Vrin, Paris.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Arendt H., 1966, Eichmann à Jérusalem. Rapport sur la banalité du mal, Gallimard,
Paris. Aristote, 1994, Ethique à Nicomaque, Vrin, Paris.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Azar C. et J. Holmberg, 1995, Defining the Generational Environmental Debt,
Ecological Economics, 14, 7, pp. 7-19.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Barkan E., 2000, The Guilt of Nations, the Johns Hopkins University Press,
Baltimore.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Besset J.-P., 2005, Comment ne plus être progressiste… sans devenir réactionnaire,
Fayard, Paris.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Costanza R., J. Cumberland, H. Daly, R. Goodland et R. Norgaard, 1997, An
Introduction to ecological economics, CRC Press.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Dupuy J.-P., 2004, Pour un catastrophisme éclairé, Quand l'impossible est certain,
Seuil, Paris.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
The Footprint Network, 2009, Ecological Footprint Atlas [en ligne] URL :
http://www.footprintnetwork.org/images/uploads/Ecological_Footprint_Atlas_2009.pdf,
Consulté le 15 novembre 2009.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Fox R. C. et J. P. Swazey, 1992, Spare Parts : Organ replacement in American
society, Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Global Forum, 1992, Debt Treaty [en ligne] URL :
http://habitat.igc.org/treaties/at-13.htm, consulté le 15 novembre 2009Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Godbout J. T., 2000, Le don, la dette, l’identité. Homo donator vs homo
oeconomicus, La Découverte/MAUSS, Paris.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Goeminne G. et E. Paredis, 2009, The concept of ecological debt : some steps
towards an enriched sustainability paradigm, Environment, Development and Sustainability,
[Publié en ligne le 6 novembre 2009].Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Gosseries A., 2003, Émissions historiques et free-riding, Archives de philosophie
du droit, 47, pp. 301-331.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Gosseries A., 2004, , Aubier (Flammarion), Paris.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Gras A., 2007, Le Choix du feu. Aux origines de la crise climatique, Fayard,
Paris.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Jonas H., 1990, Le principe responsabilité, Champs/ Flammarion, Paris.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Martinez-Alier J., 2002, The environmentalism of the poor. A study of ecological
conflicts and valuation, Edward Elgar Publishing, London.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Mathias J.-C., 2009, Politique de Cassandre. Manifeste républicain pour une
écologie radicale, Sang de la terre, Paris.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Mauss M., 2007, Essai sur le don. Forme et raison de l'échange dans les sociétés
archaïques (1925), Quadrige/Presses universitaires de France, Paris.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
McLaren D., 2006, Environmental space, equity and the ecological debt, in J.
Agyeman, R. D. Bullard, B. Evans (Eds.), Just Sustainabilities. Development in an unequal
world, Earthscan, London.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Meyer A., 1995, Economics of climate change, Nature, 378, p. 433.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Nietzsche F., 1996, Généalogie de la morale (1887), Flammarion, Paris.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
O’Neill R. V., 2001, Is it time to bury the ecosystem concept ?, Ecology, 82,
pp. 3275–3284Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Paredis E., G. Goeminne, W. Vanhove, F. Maes et J. Lambrecht, 2009, The concept of
ecological debt. Its meaning and applicability in international policy, Academia Press,
Gent.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Parfit D., 1984, Reasons and Persons, Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Parfit D., 2008, On what matters, [en ligne],
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~ball2568/parfit/parfit_-_on_what_matters.pdf, Consulté le 30
novembre 2009.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Puech M., 2008, Les catastrophes lentes, Le Portique, 22, [En ligne], Consulté le
07 novembre 2009 : http://leportique.revues.org/index2003.htmlGoogle Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Rawls J., 1971, A theory of Justice, Belknap Press, Cambridge (Ma).Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Ridge M., 2003, Giving the dead their due, Ethics, 114, pp. 38-59.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Robleto M. L. et W. Marcelo, 1992, Deuda Ecologica, Instituto de Ecologia Politica,
Santiago, Chile.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Sarthou-Lajus N., 1997, L’éthique de la dette, Presses Universitaires de France,
Paris.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Simms A., 2009, Ecological Debt, Global Warning and the Wealth of Nations, Pluto
Press, London.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Stengers I., 2008, Au temps des catastrophes. Résister à la barbarie qui vient, La
découverte, Paris.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Thomas C. D. et al., 2004, Extinction risk from climate change, Nature, 427,
pp. 145-148.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
Torras M., 2003, An ecological footprint approach to external debt relief, World
Development, 31, 12, pp. 2161-2171.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar
-
United Nations, 2009, Framework convention on climate change, UNFCCC, sept 2009,
FCCC/AWGLCA/INF.2.Google Scholar Search this bibliographic reference on Google Scholar