Table 2. Conceptions of sustainable development 


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Table 2. Conceptions of sustainable development



  Position A Position B Position C Position D
What must be sustained? Total capital (human and natural) Critical natural capital Irreversible natural capital Significance units
Why? Human welfare (material) Human welfare (material and aesthetic) Human welfare (material and aesthetic) and obligations towards nature. Obligations towards nature.
Main objects of interest 1, 2, 3, 4 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 5, 6 1, 2, 5, 6
Secondary objects of interest –– 5, 6 3, 4 3, 3
Substitutability between human and natural capital Considerable No between human capital and critical natural capital No between human capital and irreversible natural capital Avoid discussion of substitutability

 

Source: Dobson (1996).

1 = Human needs of present generations.

2 = Human needs of future generation.

3 = Human aspirations of present generations.

4 = Human aspirations of future generations.

5 = No-human needs of present generations.

6 = No-human needs of future generations.

 

As the idea of SD has been gradually shaped and developed, new definitions of the concept have appeared. Several definitions have been proposed, emphasising different aspects such as sustaining natural resources, sustaining consumption levels, achieving the sustainability of all resources (human, physical, environmental, exhaustible...), seeking the integrity of nature‘s cycles, processes and rhythms and sustaining production levels. However, a basic distinction between weak sustainability and strong sustainability have been relatively accepted, particularly in the field of Economics, as well as a classification with the additional subdivisions of very weak sustainability and very strong sustainability (Pearce and Atkinso, 1993; Turner et al., 1994).

The advocates of strong sustainability espouse that nature has inherent value in and of itself and provides us with functions that cannot be replaced by human-made capital. These core functions for life are called critical natural capital. The notion of strong sustainability is defined as the capacity of human economy to maintain this critical natural capital. For example, the items below are considered essential and their functions irreplaceable: living species (stocks of natural capital that self-reproduce) and the ozone layer. This stance is considered preservationist and involves economic growth with zero population growth. In the strongest case of sustainability, an ecocentric vision is advocated, given that the ecosphere is considered not only the support of the human economy, but also the support for all physical production of all other populations, ecosystems and biophysical processes. In turn, the defenders of weak sustainability define it as the maintenance of all natural and human capital. This posture is based on the belief that nature has an instrumental value for humans and that depleting environmental resources and services can be offset by investments in new technologies and replacement mechanisms. The characteristics that define each of these terms are (Turner et al., 1994):

 

· Very weak sustainability: Anthropocentric and utilitarian vision, growth oriented to exploitation of resources, natural resources are used at an economically optimal rate through free markets with no operational restrictions to satisfy the choices of individual consumers, a possible infinite replacement between natural and human capital, continuous wellbeing ensured through economic growth and technological innovations.

· Weak sustainability: Anthropocentric and utilitarian vision, resource conservation, concern about the distribution of development costs and benefits via inter- and intragenerational equity, rejection of the infinite replacement of natural and human resources with the acknowledgement of some resources as critical (ozone layer and some ecosystems), disassociation from the negative impacts of economic growth.

Strong sustainability: Perspective of ecosystems, resource conservation, recognition of the primary value of maintaining the functional integrity of ecosystems above a secondary value through the use of human resources, adherence to inter- and intragenerational equity, important disassociation along with the belief in an embryonic economy as the consequence of the norms of natural assets, zero economic and population growth.

Very strong sustainability: Bioethical and ecocentric vision, resource conservation, where the use of natural resources is minimal, natural rights and the intrinsic value of nature encompasses non-human organisms and even abiotic elements under a literal interpretation of Gaianism, anti-economic growth and reduction of the population.




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