Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
2.5 SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT AND
ENVIRONMENTAL
SUSTAINABILITY
Debates erupted as soon as the term 'sustainable development' was
brought into common usage in 1987 by the United Nation's Brundtland
Commission. The Brundtland Report, Our Common Future (UNWEP,
1987) coined what has become the most often-quoted definition of sus-
tainable development as 'development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs'. Some condemned it as an oxymoron, and seriously
questioned the ambiguities over the implied conflation of societal proc-
esses and environmental, or ecological, processes. Others questioned
the concept's futuristic, yet imprecise, tenor. Still others, though not
the scientific community, rejected the doomsday predictions about
future climate change.
One generalization difficult to refute, or ignore, is that the current
environmental and development paths the world is on are not sustain-
able (Mawhinney, 2003; Monbiot, 2007). Indeed, contemporary glo-
balization processes are making things worse (see Chapter 2.3). This
is because these current paths are extensions of existing global pat-
terns of environmental degradation, natural resource-exploitation
and widespread impoverishment. Also, there is greater inequality of
wealth, major decreases in international assistance and increases in
foreign debt, among other 'plagues of globalization' (Aguilar and
Cavada, 2002).
This chapter critically appraises the ambiguities concerning how
'sustainable development' has been conceptualized and holistically con-
ceived. Particular notice is taken of the complications we face when
merging concerns for the human development of societies and people's
