ABSTRACT
Global climate change challenges conventional approaches to the ethical thinking behind Third World development, which relies on free market mechanisms to improve quality of life. Amartya Sen also challenges these approaches to development in his controversial book Development as Freedom (1999). This chapter re-examines Sen's call for development as a socially led process that encourages freedom, with economic growth playing a subordinate role. His theory demands integrated, balanced decision-making on the part of governments, institutions and community representatives participating in development projects. In the second part of the chapter, a brief description of the Enlightenment origins contributing to the evolution of Western individualism and consumption habits serves as background for discussion of various approaches to environmental ethics. The thinking of Denis Goulet and Sen is combined to propose a model for collaborative decision-making among equal power stakeholders mediated by belief in values supporting a balance between ecological well-being and human development. Faith in such values will be required to appropriately prioritize competing or inconsistent beliefs and inspire the breakthrough creativity that will be essential to resolve the ongoing inequities of human development while simultaneously reversing the environmental damage caused by such development.
