diff --git a/include/cantera/base/global.h b/include/cantera/base/global.h
index 01fb4e4bc..1201f9353 100644
--- a/include/cantera/base/global.h
+++ b/include/cantera/base/global.h
@@ -27,14 +27,6 @@ namespace Cantera
 class XML_Node;
 class Logger;
 
-//! Declaration for whether the Debug mode is turned on within Cantera
-/*!
- *  Turn on the mode by using the following compile time syntax
- *
- *       scons debug_verbose=True build
- */
-extern const int g_DEBUG_MODE;
-
 //! Return the number of errors that have been encountered so far
 /*!
  * @ingroup errorhandling
diff --git a/src/base/global.cpp b/src/base/global.cpp
index f4ed902e4..e369e6674 100644
--- a/src/base/global.cpp
+++ b/src/base/global.cpp
@@ -13,14 +13,6 @@ using namespace std;
 namespace Cantera
 {
 
-//! Definition of whether the DEBUG_MODE environment is turned on within Cantera.
-#if DEBUG_MODE_ENABLED == 1
-const int g_DEBUG_MODE = 1;
-#else
-const int g_DEBUG_MODE = 0;
-#endif
-
-
 //! Return a pointer to the application object
 static Application* app()
 {