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