This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Rees, W. E. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Globalization and Sustainability: Conflict or Convergence?

University of British Columbia

Unsustainability is an old problem human societieshave collapsed with disturbing regularity throughouthistory. I argue that a genetic predisposition forunsustainability is encoded in certain human physiological,social and behavioral traits that once conferredsurvival value but are now maladaptive. Auniquely human capacity indeed, necessity for elaboratecultural myth-making reinforces these negativebiological tendencies. Our contemporary, increasinglyglobalmyth, promotes a vision of world developmentcentered on unlimited economic expansion fuelledby more liberalized trade. This myth is not onlyfailing on its own terms but places humanity on a collisioncourse with biophysical reality our ecologicalfootprint already exceeds the human carrying capacityof Earth. Sustainability requires that we acknowledgethe primitive origins of human ecological dysfunctionand seize conscious control of our collectivedestiny. The final triumph of enlightened reason andmutual compassion over scripted determinism wouldherald a whole new phase in human evolution.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Gunder Sustainability: Planning's Saving Grace or Road to Perdition? Journal of Planning Education and Research, December 1, 2006; 26(2): 208 - 221. [Abstract] [PDF]