sustainable development

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Assignment: Reading titled 'Sustainable Development (1987-2005): An
Oxymoron Comes of Age'.
A- Comment on the influence of economics on the sustainability/SD
debate.

Influence of economics on sustainability
The debate within this article surrounding economics and sustainability argues
how sustainability has been interpreted in terms of economic paradigms. Starting
from Bruntland Report to Post World War II Rio Convention, following are the
arguments which have been discussed in terms of economics-sustainability
debate:
Environmental issues were formerly thought to be linked with resource scarcities.
Furthermore, the measures used to overcome lack of resources could have
caused environmental concerns. This was realized later and the concept of
‘needs’ changed overtime and development which is one of the determinants
took on a new meaning and came to include environmental issues and
preservation in business. However, It is argued that developing countries will opt
for rapid economic growth without giving much concern on environmental
impacts unlike developed nations.
Another debate is that natural resources are argued to be of greater importance
than the incomes generated from them because man-made capital cannot
replace them. Future consumption or present production needs to be sustained
because growing population demands so. However, developing countries are
unable to do so due to factors like low incomes, poor infrastructure and
consumption patterns. Social inequalities worsen the situation whereby people
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satisfy their current needs at the cost of future and this is prevalent in poor
societies.
After the Rio Convention in 1992, efforts were taken to engage both businesses
and environmental groups in order to reduce pollution, promote self-regulation
and include sustainability in business practices. This can be witnessed with the
formation of ecological modernization which enables businesses to grow rapidly
without having progressive impacts on environment. As Kuznets curve declare
that development of economies makes them more sustainable and efficient.
Product certification has perhaps played a vital role in improving defined
standards and more sustainable use of resources. However, issues in supply
chains need to be addressed where unsustainable practices are undertaken.
Evidence shows a critical situation in developing countries where only a small
number of businesses comply to sustainable methods of operations. Due to poor
governance, high levels of poverty and debt, effective environmental standards is
difficult to enforce.
Neo-classical economics has promoted the importance of sustainability and tried
to include environmental factors in market preferences. Loss of bio-diversity and
climate change were the main issues of the international environment .Economic
development was assured to be unbiased to environment. The new sustainability
paradigm assumes environment to be a shared responsibility of everyone. Terms
such as ‘wise use’, ‘wise stewardship’ and ‘sovereign property rights’ were
emphasized. Thus, over the years from 1987 to 2005, the economic debate
which highly influences sustainability has shifted from supporting needs
approach to focusing more on rights and choices for people. This has led to

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taking into account the environmental issues but still the author of this article
highlights that if we want to pursue sustainability, it needs to be redefined in
terms of social and cultural context.
B- Briefly review any two of the other discourses presented in the
paper.

1. Sustainable Development and Justice
An important discourse discussed within this article is justice and sustainable
development. Regarding the discourse on natural rights and sustainability, rights
are often not seen in political sense rather confused with natural laws and
considered irreversible. Andrew Dobson observed that sometimes sustainability
is assumed to be subordinate to justice whereas most often reverse is the case.
This is seen in the functionality and policies where win-lose situation is mostly
evident. Also how we view sustainability or justice will determine the actions we
perform. Still, justice and sustainability both have indefinite meanings and atleast
one term needs to be legitimized if we want to follow this discourse.
2. Nature Engineering: Sustainability as the Human Subject
A major discourse included in this article is regarding genetic engineering and
sustainable development and how the emerging science and technology has
changed the meaning of sustainability. With the advent of the genetic engineering
and technology marked by Human Genome Project now pose new issues to the
discourse of environment and sustainability. As the human subject itself is
changing, the categories environment and sustainability might not remain valid.
Also the paradigm is now shifting from managing environment to mediate ting
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and exploring and creating new things. Thus as the interaction of humans and
environment is changing and boundaries are merging then policies will also be
reconsidered. Thus in this regard, the meaning of sustainability and environment
will also need to be reconsidered.

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