In 2008, the new Constitution of Ecuador recognized the Rights of Nature, in order to restore the ecological footprint. For this reason, the main goal of this article is to reflect about the theories, practices, and public policies developed in Ecuadorian schools with the Environmental Education Program ‘Tierra de Todos.’ As a result, this work integrates scientific knowledge with ancestral wisdom, combining an ecology of knowledge as a transdisciplinary research methodology. Part of this program is an adaptation of the methodology TiNi and promotes a critical environmental awareness with all students of primary and secondary schools. The methodology TiNi has its origin in Peru and was approved by UNESCO for its potential to learn socio-ecologic didactics in direct contact with nature. As conclusion, environmental education public policies aim to face the complex civilizing challenges of the Anthropocene teaching how to feel-think-act in harmony with the co-evolutionary processes of nature, in order to (re)design regenerative cultures.

The impact of food production patterns and food supply upon consumption patterns is usually explained by economies of scale and affordability. Less attention is given to food trade patterns and global insertion of economies affecting dietary changes. This paper contributes to the discussion using the concept of caloric unequal exchange that defines the deterioration of terms of trade in food in units of calories and complements studies on unequal exchange and ecologically unequal exchange. A new perspective to food systems’ analysis is achieved by using this concept. This paper uses the case study of Ecuador to exemplify its potentiality. Exports and imports to and from Ecuador are analyzed for the period 1988 through 2013 in volume, value, and calories, for different groups of products. The conclusion is that Ecuador is increasingly helping to feed the world, at a caloric cost that is decreasing over time. There is a deterioration of the terms of trade of traded food in terms of calories for Ecuador of more than 250% between 1986 and 2013.

The rate of CO₂ emissions concentration in the atmosphere increases the likelihood of significant impacts on humankind and ecosystems. The assumption that permissible levels of greenhouse gas emissions cannot exceed the global average temperature increase of 2 °C in relation to pre-industrial levels remains uncertain. Despite this uncertainty, the direct implication is that enormous quantities of fossil fuels have, thus far, wrongly been counted as assets by hydrocarbon firms as they cannot be exploited if we want to keep climate under certain control. These are the so-called “toxic assets”. Due to the relationship among CO₂ emissions, GDP, energy consumption, and energy efficiency, the concept of toxic assets can be transferred to toxic income, which is the income level that would generate levels of CO₂ emissions incompatible with keeping climate change under control. This research, using a simulation model based on country-based econometric models, estimated a threshold for income per capita above which the temperature limit of 2 °C would be surpassed. Under the business as usual scenario, average per capita income would be $14,208 (in constant 2010 USD) in 2033; and under the intervention scenario, which reflects the commitments of the COP21 meeting held in Paris in December 2015, the toxic revenue would be $13,433 (in constant 2010 USD) in 2036.

The rate of CO2 emissions concentration in the atmosphere increases the likelihood of significant impacts on humankind and ecosystems. The assumption that permissible levels of greenhouse gas emissions cannot exceed the global average temperature increase of 2 ºC in relation to pre-industrial levels remains uncertain. Despite this uncertainty, the direct implication is that enormous quantities of fossil fuels have, thus far, wrongly been counted as assets by hydrocarbon firms as they cannot be exploited if we want to keep climate under certain control. These are the socalled “toxic assets”. Due to the relationship among CO2 emissions, GDP, energy consumption, and energy efficiency, the concept of toxic assets can be transferred to toxic income, which is the income level that would generate levels of CO2 emissions incompatible with keeping climate change under control. This research, using a simulation model based on country-based econometric models, estimated a threshold for income per capita above which the temperature limit of 2 ºC would be surpassed. Under the business as usual scenario, average per capita income would be $14,208 (in constant 2010 USD) in 2033; and under the intervention scenario, which reflects the commitments of the COP21 meeting held in Paris in December 2015, the toxic revenue would be $13,433 (in constant 2010 USD) in 2036.

The Amazon region is an extraordinary place to study local and international power relations, social and environmental dispossession, conflicts of values and interests surrounding the environment, and the definition of public policies, study areas, and praxis of ecological economics. This interdisciplinary field has promoted the study of ecological-distributive conflicts, ecological debt, environmental justice, and poverty and its relationship with the deterioration of ecological systems. Joan Martínez Allier’s contributions to the study of these conflicts, the promotion of public policies for the benefit of Amazonian cultures, and the sustainability of this biodiverse region have been outstanding.