The relationship between economic growth,
human well-being, and the achievement of a
sustainable future has a long and complex intellectual
history. In his 1910 book The Fight
for Conservation, for example, the American conservationist
Gifford Pinchot emphasized:
the right of the present generation to use what
it needs and all it needs of the natural resources
now available [recognizing] equally our obligation
so to use what we need that our descendents
shall not be deprived of what they need.1
This language strikingly anticipates the seminal
work of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), which defined “sustainable
development” as a process that “meets present needs
without compromising the ability of future generations
to meet their own needs.”2
This approach is strongly
bottom-up—it suggests that a sustainable future will
come into being if the biophysical and social conditions
needed to support economic activity and human
flourishing are maintained from each generation to the
next. In addition, it emphasizes meeting needs rather
than promoting growth or satisfying consumer preferences
as the defining characteristic of “development.”
Importantly, the WCED attaches a strong emphasis to
issues of equity, especially the goal of alleviating poverty
in settings and societies where people’s objective
needs remain unmet