For example, if the additional welfare benefits of more timber furniture
exactly offset the immediate welfare losses of a cleared forest, current
welfare remains unchanged. However, unlike forest, timber furniture
cannot provide some of the source, sink, and life-support services that
are needed to sustain future economic activity, including the production
of new timber furniture. Thus, overall, current economic welfare has
remained unchanged but the capacity for that economic welfare to be
sustained has declined. Although the GPI reflects the former only, it
should not be criticized simply because it does not fully reflect the latter
since the GPI was never designed to be a strictmeasure of sustainability.
It is for this reason that the GPI needs to be supplemented by biophysical
indicators, such as the Ecological Footprint, to better indicate whether
the economic welfare currently being enjoyed is sustainable.
Finally, an item such as the political freedomenjoyed by the