ABSTRACT
The conventional wisdom conceives an antithesis between economic development and ecological sustainability. As the former concept has been primarily conceived, there is indeed such an antithesis. The image of a billion Chinese, a billion Indians, and billions of others throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America living in the way that North Americans and Europeans now live is an ecological nightmare. How then to prevent environmental catastrophe in a way that does not preserve injustices and reflect a ‘roll up the drawbridge’ mentality? The answer lies in North Americans examining our own way of life and our own assumptions, which have been so seductive to those in the Third World and have in large measure shaped their aspirations as well as our own.
