Is Economic Development Compatible with Ecosystem Health?

Abstract

ABSTRACT

The incessant quest for economic growth has dominated human energies for centuries. However, the costs in terms of social and ecological disruption have seldom been taken into account. In consequence, the Earth’s ecosystems have been increasingly disabled. The root problem lies in archaic economic thinking that is completely divorced from natural process. This thinking entrains the notions of unlimited substitution for scarce resources, growth without limits, and the myth that nature’s services are in never-ending supply. If there is to be a viable future for humankind, this thinking must give way to the realization that the economic process has steadily undermined one of the most critical societal goals, namely, that of preserving the health and integrity of the earth’s ecosystems. If we are to find our way, economic development must be tempered by ecological and social realities.