Environment, equity, economy : reflections on sustainability

Policy debate about climate change seems to have been reduced to discussing the pros and cons of ‘putting a price on carbon’. Biodiversity, forests, and endangered species too, have all been targeted for pricing in order to ‘protect’ them. And, most bizarre of all, the interests of future generations are also being brought into this market logic. Sustainability has been reduced to this. It was once all about bequeathing a healthy world to the future. However, current government policy is informed by an abstract economic theory that takes us away from reality; away from the material and ecological dimensions of human survival. Sustainability requires that we think again about what an economy actually is; to embrace its role as a conduit between nature and people for the purpose of meeting our needs on a sustainable basis.