ABSTRACT
This book was inspired by unease regarding the lack of progress we have made towards sustainable development, 1 despite numerous activities carried out by government agencies, research laboratories, environmental organizations, neighbourhood councils and the like. It would be difficult indeed to defend that only little energy and thought has been dedicated to developing sustainable solutions. After all, we now have hybrid cars, e-government, Earth Days and Earth Summits, Ride Your Bike campaigns, photovoltaics and 6022 books on sustainable development in the US Library of Congress. 2 In short: much has been done, but not much has been achieved. The United Nations’ General Assembly, in preparation for the Johannesburg summit Rio +10, enunciates the same impression much more eloquently:
We are deeply concerned that, despite the many successful and continuing efforts… the environment and the natural resource base… continue to deteriorate at an alarming rate.
United Nations General Assembly 55th session, 2001, p1