Article: (Local) environmental quality versus (global) ecological carrying capacity: what might alternative aggregated indicators bring to the debates about environmental Kuznets curves and sustainable development? Journal: International Journal of Sustainable Development (IJSD) 2006 Vol.9 No.3 pp.297 - 310 Abstract: The Environmental Kuznets Curves (EKC) hypothesis suggests that the environmental impacts of a population increase in the early stages of its development, and decline once a certain level of income is attained. After examining different criticisms that can be addressed to studies that validate this hypothesis (environmental data which concern mostly restricted and/or local phenomenon, development indicators which offer a too limited vision of human development), this paper proposes a representation that confronts two aggregated indicators: ecological footprint and human development index. This confrontation contradicts the EKC hypothesis. Different visions concerning the meaning of the term environment (local environmental quality versus global ecological carrying capacity) might partially explain our conclusions and reveals a pernicious phenomenon. While developed nations tend to improve the quality of their |local| environment, they also tend to consume more and more |global| resources, which might often come from developing nations. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: (Local) environmental quality versus (global) ecological carrying capacity: what might alternative aggregated indicators bring to the debates about environmental Kuznets curves and sustainable development?

Authors: Aurelien Boutaud, Natacha Gondran, Christian Brodhag

Addresses: 353 Chemin de la Fruitiere, 74290 Talloires, France. ' Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Saint-Etienne, Sciences, Information et Technologies pour l'Environnement, 158, Cours Fauriel 42023, Saint-Etienne, Cedex 2, France. ' Delegation Interministerielle au Developpement Durable, Ministere de l'Ecologie et du Developpement Durable, 20, Avenue de Segur, 75302 Paris 07 SP, France

Abstract: The Environmental Kuznets Curves (EKC) hypothesis suggests that the environmental impacts of a population increase in the early stages of its development, and decline once a certain level of income is attained. After examining different criticisms that can be addressed to studies that validate this hypothesis (environmental data which concern mostly restricted and/or local phenomenon, development indicators which offer a too limited vision of human development), this paper proposes a representation that confronts two aggregated indicators: ecological footprint and human development index. This confrontation contradicts the EKC hypothesis. Different visions concerning the meaning of the term environment (local environmental quality versus global ecological carrying capacity) might partially explain our conclusions and reveals a pernicious phenomenon. While developed nations tend to improve the quality of their |local| environment, they also tend to consume more and more |global| resources, which might often come from developing nations.

Keywords: ecological footprint; environmental Kuznets curves; EKC; human development index; sustainable development; sustainability; environmental quality; ecological carrying capacity; local environment; aggregated indicators; environmental impact.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSD.2006.012850

International Journal of Sustainable Development, 2006 Vol.9 No.3, pp.297 - 310

Published online: 18 Mar 2007 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article

Title: (Local) environmental quality versus (global) ecological carrying capacity: what might alternative aggregated indicators bring to the debates about environmental Kuznets curves and sustainable development?

Keep up-to-date