Eco-justice and ecological debt

This is from a recent WCC introduction to the statement Statement on eco-justice and ecological debt. I reckon that the term 'ecological debt' might be the one least familiar to readers, so here's what it says: "The concept of ecological debt has been shaped to measure the real cost that policies of expansion and globalization have had on developing nations, a debt that some say industrialized nations should repay. Dr Joan Martinez Alier, a professor at the Universidad Aut�noma de Barcelona in Spain, said climate change, unequal trade, 'bio-piracy', exports of toxic waste and other factors have added to the imbalance, which he called 'a kind of war against people around the world, a kind of aggression.'"
It's hard to see that one 'flying' of course, but it is important for us to acknowledge the truth of the matter. It's of a piece with the probable fact that developed nations 'owe' a lot of development to having been able to asset strip former empire. Of course the issue of the justice of asking people now to pay for the sins of their ancestors (or, worse, for the sins of their ancestors' oppressors) is also something that needs to be taken on board. Full statement here.