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this article was published in the april 2005 issue of environment science and policy for sustainable development volume 47 number 3 pages 8 21 robert w kates thomas m parris ...

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                               This article was published in the April 2005 issue of Environment: 
                               Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, Volume 47,  
                               Number 3, pages 8–21. © Robert W. Kates, Thomas M. Parris, 
                               and Anthony A. Leiserowitz, 2005. For more information about 
                               Environment, see http://www.heldref.org/env.php 
           WHAT IS
            SUSTAINABLE
            DEVELOPMENT?
             GOALS, INDICATORS, VALUES, AND PRACTICE
             By Robert W. Kates, Thomas M. Parris, and Anthony A. Leiserowitz
             Sustainable development is. . .
             Considering that the concept of sustainable development is now 
             enshrined on the masthead of Environment magazine, featured 
                                                   1 
             on 8,720,000 Web pages, and enmeshed in the aspirations of 
             countless programs, places, and institutions, it should be easy to 
                                              2
             complete the sentence.  But the most widely accepted definition 
             is creatively ambiguous: “Humanity has the ability to make devel-
             opment sustainable—to ensure that it meets the needs of the 
             present without compromising the ability of future generations  
               
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                                           3                                                                        nations should do to become richer,” and 
               to meet their own needs.”  This malleabil-         were often followed by global confer-
               ity  allows  programs  of  environment  or         ences.  Characteristic  of  these  interna-       thus again is automatically dismissed by 
               development; places from local to global;          tional  commissions  was  the  effort  to         many in the international arena as being 
               and institutions of government, civil soci-        link together the aspirations of human-           a concern of specialists, of those involved 
               ety, business, and industry to each project        kind—demonstrating  how  the  pursuit             in questions of “development assistance.” 
               their interests, hopes, and aspirations onto       of one great value required the others.           But the “environment” is where we live; 
               the banner of sustainable development.             Sustainable development, with its dual            and “development” is what we all do in 
                  A brief history of the concept, along           emphasis on the most recent concerns—             attempting to improve our lot within that 
               with the interpretive differences and the          development and environment—is typi-              abode. The two are inseparable.9
               common  ground  in  definitions,  goals,           cal of such efforts. 
               indicators, values, and practice follows.            The World Commission on Environ-                   As  with  previous  efforts,  the  report 
               Taken together, these help explain what            ment  and  Development  was  initiated            was  followed  by  major  international 
               is meant by sustainable development.               by the General Assembly of the United             meetings.  The  United  Nations  Confer-
                                                                  Nations in 1982, and its report, Our Com-         ence on Environment and Development 
                                                                  mon Future, was published in 1987.7 It            (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 (the 
               Antecedents                                        was chaired by then–Prime Minister of             so-called “Earth Summit”) issued a dec-
                                                                  Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland, thus                laration  of  principles,  a  detailed Agen-
                  In the last half of the twentieth century,      earning the name the “Brundtland Com-             da  21  of  desired  actions,  international 
               four key themes emerged from the col-              mission.”  The  commission’s  member-             agreements on climate change and biodi-
               lective  concerns  and  aspirations  of  the       ship  was  split  between  developed  and         versity, and a statement of principles on 
                                                                                                                            10
               world’s peoples: peace, freedom, devel-            developing countries. Its roots were in           forests.  Ten years later, in 2002, at the 
                                              4                   the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the 
               opment,  and  environment.   The  peace                                                              World Summit on Sustainable Develop-
               that  was  thought  to  be  secured  in  the       Human Environment—where the  con-                 ment in Johannesburg, South Africa, the 
               postwar  world  of  1945  was  immedi-             flicts  between  environment  and  devel-         commitment to sustainable development 
                                                                  opment were first acknowledged—and                                  11
               ately threatened by the nuclear arms race.                                                           was reaffirmed.  In the interim, sustain-
               Throughout the Cold War, peace was sus-
               tained globally but fought locally, often                        Although reinterpreted over time, peace, 
               by  proxies  for  the  superpowers.  While 
               the number of wars has diminished over                  freedom, development, and the environment 
                                5
               the last decade,  peace is still sought, pri-
               marily in Africa and the Middle East.                            remain prominent issues and aspirations.
                  Freedom was sought early in the post-
               war world in the struggle to end imperi-
               alism; to halt totalitarian oppression; and        in  the  1980 World Conservation Strat-           able development as a concept, as a goal, 
               later  to  extend  democratic  governance,         egy of the International Union for the            and as a movement spread rapidly and 
               human rights, and the rights of women,             Conservation of Nature, which argued              is now central to the mission of count-
               indigenous peoples, and minorities. The            for  conservation  as  a  means  to  assist       less international organizations, national 
               success of many former colonies in attain-         development  and  specifically  for  the          institutions, corporate enterprises, “sus-
               ing national independence was followed             sustainable development and utilization           tainable cities,” and locales. 
                                                                                                              8
               by a focus on economic development to              of species, ecosystems, and resources.  
               provide  basic  necessities  for  the  poor-       Drawing on these, the Brundtland Com-
               est  two-thirds  of  the  world  and  higher       mission began its work committed to the           Definitions
               standards of living for the wealthy third.         unity of environment and development.
               Finally, it is only in the past 40 years that      As Brundtland argued:                                The  Brundtland  Commission’s  brief 
               the environment (local to global) became                                                             definition of sustainable development as 
               a key focus of national and international          The environment does not exist as a sphere        the “ability to make development sustain-
               law and institutions.                              separate from human actions, ambitions,           able—to ensure that it meets the needs 
                  Although  reinterpreted  over  time,            and  needs,  and  attempts  to  defend  it        of the present without compromising the 
               peace,  freedom,  development,  and  the           in  isolation  from  human  concerns  have        ability of future generations to meet their 
               environment  remain  prominent  issues             given  the  very  word  “environment”  a                       12
                                                                                                                    own needs”  is surely the standard defi-
               and aspirations. In the 1970s and 1980s,           connotation of naivety in some political          nition when judged by its widespread use 
               world  commissions  of  notables6                  circles. The word “development” has also          and frequency of citation. The use of this 
                                                       were 
               created to study such international con-           been narrowed by some into a very lim-            definition has led many to see sustainable 
               cerns, producing major documents that              ited focus, along the lines of “what poor         development as having a major focus on 
               1010   EENVIRONMENTNVIRONMENT                                                                                                            AAPRILPRIL  20052005
             intergenerational  equity.  Although  the          The  concept  of  sustainable  development        assemble  under  the  sustainable  devel-
             brief definition does not explicitly men-          does imply limits—not absolute limits but         opment  tent,  also  created  a  veritable 
             tion  the  environment  or  development,           limitations  imposed  by  the  present  state     industry  of  deciphering  and  advocat-
             the subsequent paragraphs, while rarely            of technology and social organization on          ing what sustainable development really 
             quoted,  are  clear.  On  development,  the        environmental resources and by the ability        means.  One  important  study—by  the 
             report states that human needs are basic           of  the  biosphere to absorb the effects of       Board on Sustainable Development of 
                                                                                  13
             and  essential;  that  economic  growth—           human activities.                                 the U.S. National Academy of Scienc-
             but also equity to share resources with                                                              es—sought to bring some order to the 
                                                                                                                                                              14
             the  poor—is  required  to  sustain  them;           In the years following the Brundtland           broad literature its members reviewed.  
             and that equity is encouraged by effec-            Commission’s report, the creative ambi-           In  its  report,  Our  Common  Journey: 
             tive citizen participation. On the environ-        guity  of  the  standard  definition,  while      A Transition toward Sustainability, the 
             ment, the text is also clear:                      allowing a range of disparate groups to           board focused on the seemingly inher-
                                                                                                                  ent distinction between what advocates 
                   Figure 1. Definitions of sustainable development                                                and analysts sought to sustain and what 
                                                                                                                  they sought to develop, the relationship 
                                                                                                                  between the two, and the time horizon of 
                                                                                                                  the future (see Figure 1 on this page).
                                                                                                                     Thus under the heading “what is to 
                                                                                                                  be sustained,” the board identified three 
                           WHAT IS TO              FOR HOW LONG?                  WHAT IS TO                      major  categories—nature,  life  support 
                        BE SUSTAINED:                    25 years              BE DEVELOPED:                      systems,  and  community—as  well  as 
                                                       “Now and in                                                intermediate  categories  for  each,  such 
                                                        the future”                                               as  Earth,  environment,  and  cultures. 
                                                         Forever                                                  Drawing  from  the  surveyed  literature, 
                        NATURE                                                 PEOPLE                             the  board  found  that  most  commonly, 
                                                                                                                  emphasis  was  placed  on  life  support 
                        Earth                                                  Child survival                     systems, which defined nature or envi-
                        Biodiversity                                           Life expectancy                    ronment as a source of services for the 
                        Ecosystems                                             Education                          utilitarian  life  support  of  humankind. 
                                                                               Equity                             The  study  of  ecosystem  services  has 
                                                                               Equal opportunity                  strengthened  this  definition  over  time. 
                                                                                                                  In  contrast,  some  of  the  sustainable 
                        LIFE SUPPORT                   LINKED BY               ECONOMY                            development  literature  valued  nature 
                        Ecosystem                          Only                Wealth                             for  its  intrinsic  value  rather  than  its 
                        services                          Mostly               Productive                         utility  for  human  beings.  There  were 
                        Resources                           But                sectors                            also parallel demands to sustain cultural 
                        Environment                        And                 Consumption                        diversity, including livelihoods, groups, 
                                                            Or                                                    and places that constitute distinctive and 
                                                                                                                  threatened communities. 
                                                                                                                     Similarly, there were three quite dis-
                        COMMUNITY                                              SOCIETY                            tinct ideas about what should be devel-
                        Cultures                                               Institutions                       oped:  people,  economy,  and  society. 
                                                                                                                  Much  of  the  early  literature  focused 
                        Groups                                                 Social capital                     on  economic  development,  with  pro-
                        Places                                                 States                             ductive sectors providing employment, 
                                                                               Regions                            desired consumption, and wealth. More 
                                                                                                                  recently, attention has shifted to human 
                                                                                                                  development, including an emphasis on 
                                                                                                                  values  and  goals,  such  as  increased 
                 SOURCE: U.S. National Research Council, Policy Division, Board on Sustainable                    life  expectancy,  education,  equity,  and 
                 Development, Our Common Journey: A Transition Toward Sustainability                              opportunity. Finally, the Board on Sus-
                 (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1999).                                                  tainable  Development  also  identified 
                                                                                                                  calls to develop society that emphasized 
                                                                                                                  the values of security and well-being of 
            VOLUME 47 NUMBER 3                                                                                                                ENVIRONMENT     11
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...This article was published in the april issue of environment science and policy for sustainable development volume number pages robert w kates thomas m parris anthony a leiserowitz more information about see http www heldref org env php what is goals indicators values practice by considering that concept now enshrined on masthead magazine featured web enmeshed aspirations countless programs places institutions it should be easy to complete sentence but most widely accepted definition creatively ambiguous humanity has ability make devel opment ensure meets needs present without compromising future generations photo credits left right row corbis digital vision tim hall getty images james marshall nations do become richer meet their own malleabil were often followed global confer ity allows or ences characteristic these interna thus again automatically dismissed from local tional commissions effort many international arena as being government civil soci link together human concern special...

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