ABSTRACT

It has often been observed that environmental problems have an ethical dimension. In her introductory address to the 1988 World Conference on the Changing Atmosphere, the Norwegian Prime Minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland, asserted that what was needed in getting to grips with environmental problems was 'a new holistic ethic in which economic growth and environmental protection go hand in hand around the world'.1 Similarly, in the World Commission report, Our Common Future, the authors duly noted that they had 'tried to show how human survival and well-being could depend on success in elevating sustainable development to a global ethic' (World Commission 1987, p. 308).