Sustainable Development

Sustainable development is arguably the currently dominant environmental discourse, especially at the global level. Should environmentalists accept the terms of the discourse and make the best of it, or push for more radical alternatives to sustainable development? The concept of sustainability reflects the widespread acknowledgment that present levels of per capita resource consumption in the richer countries cannot possibly be generalized to people living in the rest of the world and cannot be continued into …

…and compliance. Sustainable development, in the final analysis requires challenging not only the self-interest of the wealthy minority, it requires a redefinition of not only what and how we produce but also of who will be allowed produce and for what ends. This broad-based democratic participation will create the basis for a more equitable distribution of wealth, the fundamental prerequisites for forging a strategy of sustainable development. This is the real challenge we face today.