ECONOMIC-DEVELOPMENT VS SUSTAINABLE SOCIETIES - REFLECTIONS ON THE PLAYERS IN A CRUCIAL CONTEST

The World Commission on Environment and Development adopted and legitimated the idea of sustainable development in its report Our Common Future. Without substantiation, WCED claimed that economic growth and environmental protection were compatible. The 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development at Rio de Janeiro adopted the idea, without further testing, as its intellectual core. Since 1992, the United Nations, the United States, and many other nations have created agencies to track progress toward sustainable development. In favor of the idea are individuals, including, it appears, most economists, who advocate centralization, internationalization, and rapid economic development. The opposition consists principally of people from academic disciplines, especially ecologists and humanists. This group does not communicate effectively, but if it did, it might agree that: economic development and environmental protection are not compatible; insistence by economists that all natural resources be given a dollar value is useless, if not harmful; biodiversity has intrinsic value; sustainable development weakens local autonomy; and social welfare is a key component of environmental health. To strengthen the defense of ecosystems, ecologists, humanists, and others should apply their knowledge to practical environmental problems. By making their knowledge accessible in local political arenas, they will concurrently shore up the ability of local units to protect their environments and speak with force in larger political arenas. All proponents of environmental health must become advocates of environmental justice.