ABSTRACT
Ecological morality has no place in the new conception; the environment is viewed in strictly functional terms as a deliverer of goods and services. The notion that the global resource base, including environmental systems, places an inevitable, absolute limit on economic development has been rejected. This rejection renders obsolete the no-growth solutions to environmental problems which had been so popular in the early 1970s. Despite the widespread use of the term sustainability, its precise meaning is by no means clear; indeed, some would claim, it has become a catch-all phrase employed to justify virtually any interest group's vision of the future. Still more elusive are mechanisms for translating the concept into implementable tools and management strategies. Forestry interests have attempted to justify mass planting schemes as a contribution to the sustainability of the global atmospheric system, while genetic engineers have sought legitimacy by claiming that biotechnology will contribute to sustainability by increasing food production and reducing chemical inputs to agriculture.
