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The Emperor Has No Clothes: The Conundrum of Sustainable Development
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | McCloskey, Michael |
| Copyright Year | 1999 |
| Abstract | Most of us would like to embrace the theory of sustainable development. When the Brundtland Report (l987) enunciated its version of the theory, many of us wanted to believe that a formulation was at last in hand to reconcile the competing claims of economic development and environmental protection. Now that the applause for the report has died down, doubts are creeping in again. The consensus that emerged in some quarters seems to be unraveling. Is the term an empty hope? Does the theory have substance? Does anyone know what it really means in practice? The Brundtland Report uses the term “sustainable development,” to embrace two differing sets of concerns. In the first sense, the term was a label pasted over a loosely assembled group of ideas that included the concepts of rational development (or “wise use”) and some elements of eco-development. This assembly of ideas was poorly integrated and failed to deal with the split of opinion between the technological optimists and those who believe in a decentralized model of development based on alternative technologies. The report also places heavy emphasis on the need for equity in the distribution and control of resources, though this is not rooted very well in an environmental rationale. In the report, social equity is handled as if it were a free-standing goal that was not derived from the definition of sustainable development. And indeed, in the United States, the President's Council on Sustainable Development has treated it in this manner. It probably is treated in this manner because politicians have wanted to use the concept as a way to reconcile competing claims from the environmental community, the |
| Starting Page | 153 |
| Ending Page | 160 |
| Page Count | 8 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Volume Number | 9 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1174&context=delpf&httpsredir=1&referer= |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
