Sustainable development and permits to pollute – an impossible combination Online publication date: Thu, 16-Jul-2009
by Andre Maisseu
Atoms for Peace: an International Journal (AFP), Vol. 2, No. 3, 2009
Abstract: The world economy is experiencing the turbulence of the end of a long wave of development or the Kondratieff cycle that precedes its entry into the new cycle, on which the 21st century will leave its mark. A technical system is drawing to a close – that of the 20th century characterised by a monetary, fiscal, political, epidemiological, economic, cultural, scientific, organisational, etc., order – which shaped its functioning and evolution around a rationale of the overexploitation of natural resources. We must shift as rapidly as possible from this economic rationale founded on the unrestrained pillage of natural resources to an economic rationale founded on the deployment of human skills. We need to move from a rationale promoting the accumulation of short-term profit to a policy that is careful to conserve our long-term interests. We need to transfer to an economic rationale restricting the application of the 'sacrosanct laws of the free market' solely to the outputs of acts of production, of which neither energy nor knowledge are part. We must move to an economic rationale prioritising the negentropic balance sheet of the cycle of production/consumption over the financial balance sheet.
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the Atoms for Peace: an International Journal (AFP):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:
Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.
If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com