Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
reluctance to give direction. However, the failure to provide clarity on what
should be done when these goals clash has tended, in practice, to allow the
continued dominance of short-term considerations of economic bene
t
over long-term strategic considerations of environmental health in decision-
making.
20
Counsell and Haughton suggest that the emphasis on
'
solutions has also had a chilling effect on the production of plans that
advance environment-led or social equity-centred interpretations of sus-
tainable development.
21
In contrast, the legal framework I propose in
Section 5.3
gives strong
direction as to how plan-making should be conducted and decisions
made on development proposals in the interests of maintaining ecosys-
tem functionality and alleviating current threats to this. This is consis-
tent with the progressive objectives of the system of governance and with
its adoption of ecological sustainability as a guiding concept. It is also
necessary in view of the clear inability of sustainable development, at
least in the environmentally weak interpretations of it that the UK
Government
'
win-win
s policies have afforded,
22
to legitimise the imposition of
constraints on economic growth. The provision made for a statutory
statement of the purpose of planning, for guiding principles for planning
and decision-making, and for decision rules that make it clear where
development would not be ecologically acceptable are intended to rectify
the long-standing imbalance between economic and environmental con-
siderations in decision-making, and, indeed, to weight judgments in
favour of preserving what is ecologically valuable.
'
5.2 Environmental limits and governance
Arguments that economic growth should be controlled and, if necessary,
restricted in the interests of environmental protection must overcome a
signi
cant obstacle if they are to have any practical effect. This is the
prevalent assumption that a constantly expanding economy is inherently
desirable. The widespread acceptance of the need for development to be
made sustainable has, to an extent, challenged this outlook with its
message, expressed implicitly or more explicitly in recent interpretations
of the concept, that the environment
s capacity to absorb the negative
effects of human activities is not boundless. However, its emphasis on
'
20
Haughton and Counsell,
'
Regions, Spatial Strategies
'
,pp.55
-
6, 60
-
3; Owens and Cowell,
'
Land and Limits
'
, 1st edn, pp. 40
-
3, 54
-
5.
21
Haughton and Counsell,
22
'
Regions, Spatial Strategies
'
,pp.56,59.
Ibid
., pp. 55
-
6.
