ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to find a useful way of examining the relationship between trade, competitiveness and the environment in such a manner as to be applicable to the industrial and commercial world. It suggests that the Western industrial economy, which has had such a profound effect on human society, is undergoing a process of change and restructuring. The litany of scientific stigmatisms, resulting in faulty claims, environmental damage and human health disorders, has removed science from its pedestal of credibility. Insurance companies are becoming more and more loath to provide insurance cover against environmental mis-management or disaster. The wealth of nations can no longer be determined in terms of natural resources and military infrastructure, but rather on the creative capacity of its population and careful utilisation of resources. The ecological enlightenment is shorthand for the growing consensus that economic and production systems that have perceived the environment to be outside the economic equation are simply not sustainable.
