The sustainability mirage : illusion and reality in the coming war on climate change / John Foster.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Foster, John (John Michael), 1949-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sustainable development.

Physical Description:

xix, 170 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; Sterling, VA : Earthscan, 2008.

Summary:

Sustainable development thinking got environmental issues onto the agenda but it may now be stopping us from taking serious action on climate change and other crucial planetary issues.

Sustainable development's attempted deal between present and future will always collapse under the pressure of 'now' because the needs of the present always win out. Inevitably, this means movable targets and action that will always fall short of what we need. Ultimately, sustainable development is the pursuit of a mirage, the politics of never getting there.

To escape the illusion, we must break through to a new way of understanding sustainability by focusing on the deep needs of the present, not slippery obligations to the future. Rising to the carbon challenge now, not trying to micro-manage the longer term. Looking to the science for orders of magnitude and direction, not a gameplan. Harnessing the short-term dynamics of capitalism to the cause of learning our way forward.

This book outlines an alternative to the mainstream and offers the kind of bold new thinking on energy usage, governance, education and the role of enterprise that we need to win the coming war on climate change.

Contents:

Preface: Sustainability, Mirage and Reality xiii

Part I What's Wrong with Sustainable Development?

1 The Sustainability Horizon 3

2 Pursuing the Mirage 17

Uncertain Science 19

Floating Standards 30

Shadow Stewardship 41

3 Mirage Politics 53

Part II Deep Sustainability

4 Shifting the Focus 69

5 'Life Goes On' 85

Part III Greening Our Luck

6 Making the Break: The Carbon Framework 115

7 Widening Our Options 135

Enterprise 135

Governance 140

Education for Sustainability 145

8 The Politics of Reality 149.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [157]-163) and index.

ISBN:

9781844075348

1844075346

9781844075355

1844075354

OCLC:

228374310