Introduction

The UK Interdependence Report.  How the world sustains the nation’s lifestyles and the price it pays.  New Economics Foundation, 2006.

The UK has the world’s fourth largest economy and this report shows how the our consumer economy is exported around the globe.  We are an island, but we are not self sufficient, we are interdependent with the rest of the world.  The report by NEF with the Open University was launched on 16 April 2006 – the day the average person in the UK went into ecological debt, when we stop relying on our own natural resources to support ourselves.

Globally we are pushing our ecosystems beyond their capacity to regenerate, so the world goes into debt on 23 October this year.  The UK requires 3.1 planets to support our lifestyle, the US needs 5.3 and there is only one which we share with 6billion other people.

No man is an island, the world is interdependent; not just people but all ecosystems are linked.  The report ‘explores the impact of the nation’s high-consuming lifestyles by exploring cultural, social and economic flows and the global impact of our growing ecological footprint.’

Additional Information

The report is available from NEF,  www.neweconomics.org  info@neweconomics.org

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