ABSTRACT
What I have to say falls into two parts: first, I describe the false direction of present developments; second, I explore the role of the deep ecology movement.
In common usage, the terms ‘sustainable’ and ‘development’ are seen as bywords for progress when we talk about communities, societies or states. Groups with different policies try to make them their own. Consequently, the terms are open to a confusing diversity of interpretations. In particular, sustainable development as a goal is often explicitly or implicitly limited to the fairly shortsighted interests of one species, the human species. This is in contrast to the deep ecology movement, which focuses on the long-term defence of life conditions on Earth-‘full ecological sustainability’. In practice, in the many conflicts between animals and humans concerning territory, the limiting of concern only to humans would go against the long-term interests of both humans and animals.
