Sustainable Development: Between Moral Injunctions and Natural Constraints (original) (raw)
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Review Sustainable Development: Between Moral Injunctions and Natural Constraints
2010
Sustainable development must satisfy the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. Although it looks at the economic, environmental and social aspects of sustainability, this article focuses specifically on an analysis of the concept in conjunction with the use and protection of natural resources. It shows how taking account of environmental goods, including the finite nature of certain natural resources, can change the way economists deal with the issues of growth, development and equity between generations. In this context, after a brief historical perspective on the concept of development, the paper shows how the potential for substitutability between natural and manufactured capital, for example in production technologies, lead to two paradigms, that of weak sustainability and that of strong sustainability. These two approaches are presented in an effort to explain how their merits can be mutually reinforcing.
Given the current economic challenges, the desirability of achieving sustainable development has come to the fore. This chapter outlines and discusses contemporary concepts of sustainable development paying most attention to different criteria which have been proposed for achieving sustainable economic development. Most current economic conceptions of sustainable economic development are shown to be imprecise and can be in conflict. Lack of attention to empirically measuring and examining the coefficient of concern of current generations for the well-being of future generations is identified as a major shortcoming of current debates about sustainable development. Conditions (weak and strong), which it is claimed must be satisfied to achieve sustainable economic development, are considered, before examining the merit of the three-pillar concept, which requires economic, social and ecological sustainability to be simultaneously satisfied. Although the three-pillar concept does have significant limitations, it is contended that it can be a useful guide to policy formation. Other topics covered include the role of different forms of capital in contributing to sustainable economic development. The measurement of stock of the different forms of capital (especially social capital) is found to be problematic. Nevertheless, all these forms of capital have important influences on the sustainability of economic development, or the lack of it. Several issues involving poverty and (economic sustainability) are raised. These include open-access to the use of natural resources and the social cohesiveness (embedding) of some social groups which makes it difficult for them to escape from poverty, for example, by migrating. Examples are given. Both open-access to natural resources and the nature of the social capital of some social groups may result in these groups being caught in a poverty trap. An additional subject explored in the effect of labour mobility on the conservation of natural resources.
SUSTAINABLE RESOURCE USE & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: A CONTRADICTION
The concept of 'sustainability' has become the current answer to absolving the world of its environmental and economic crises in the 21 st century. Since its conceptualisation, there has been a barrage of investigations and literature on the vagueness and ambiguity of its definition and applicability. There are two main opposing schools of thought -the pessimists, usually ecologists and other scientists, who are convinced the earth cannot forever support the world's demand of renewable and non renewable resources. On the other side are the optimists, the economists, who are equally convinced that the earth, with market incentives, appropriate public policies, material substitution, recycling, and new technology can satisfy the needs and improve the quality of human welfare, of this and following generations, indefinitely. Both views and supporting arguments are explored in the context of sustainable resource use and sustainable development. The complexity of sustainable development is also discussed in the light of international conventions and agreements. Examples of the application of sustainable strategies to local, national and regional issues, as well as the role of international agencies in local/national strategies, are also reviewed to give a glimpse of understanding how initial objectives may succeed, or in spite of all good intention, fail. Both sides of the argument have a point and are seen as two sides of the same coin. With limited empirical evidence of ecosystem evolution and resource maintenance, sustainable resource use is basically dependent on the outcome of the cost-increasing effects of depletion and the cost-reducing effects of new technology. Sustainability is therefore seen as a dynamic concept based on attitude and flexibility not the final solution to utopia on earth.
Natural resources and sustainable development
2008
The use of natural resources into the productive technological processes means the direct consumption of resources for satisfaction of needs of products and services. The exploitation of natural resources can be performed into a complex, coordinated manner, through the simultaneous satisfaction of more consumption demands.The actual generation evidently supports the degradation and sometimes decreasing of natural resources because of the past generations. The future generation will support not only the actual cost of environment degradation, of natural resources diminishing but also the cost of accumulation into the environment of atmospheric pollutants and toxic heavy metals, of losing the tropical forests and biodiversity. For this reason it is necessary the actual consideration of the needs for the future generation, even if that implies supplementary charges for political institutions that are obliged to satisfy only the economical, social and environmental demands and needs for the actual generation.
Sustainable development and environmental problem
The holistic approach to environment, 2021
Different forms of inequality, resulting from anthropogenic environmental changes, constitute a large part of the environmental problems. Environmental benefits and harms are not distributed equally across and within national boundaries. Such benefits and harms are unevenly distributed within and between generations. The environmental harms are caused by our current practices and will afflict our future generations, while benefits are enjoyed by the present generations alone. The concepts of "sustainability" and "sustainable development" have been developed to address such problems of inter-generational equality. The concept of sustainability began its career in the context of sustainable agriculture and sustainable ecological system. Any account of sustainability must answer questions about what should be sustained, for whom it is to be sustained and why. In the mainstream economic literature, the answer to the first questions is a certain level of human welfare which is understood as preference satisfaction. This definition leads to the further questions as to what is required for such maintenance of this level of human welfare over time. The main aim of this article is to discuss these entire problems and provide some possible solutions to overcome this challenge positively.
Growth, Development And Sustainability
The Romanian Statistical Review, 2013
Describing the relationship of interdependence through the materials balance, will be argued how the economy is a subset of the environment and the environment the natural limit to any economic initiative, or the limits imposed by the laws of thermodynamics. The theoretical debate moves, then, from the concept of growth to that of development, understood this in its three dimensions: economic, social, environmental. Bring the different environmental positions in four versions of sustainability, with the gained awareness that it’s “a spectrum of overlapping sustainability positions from very weak to very strong”.