The "Initial Situations" offer an introduction to the global situation of conflict between ecology and justice, set against which sustainability turns into a programme of survival, the very presence of which poses a dramatic alternative: sustainability or self-destruction. It can no longer be dismissed that the climate has begun to destabilize. The end of cheap oil is upon us, and many sustaining natural spaces like forests, seas and wetlands already have been destroyed beyond repair.
Yet this poignantly outlines the main dilemma of justice on a planet with limited resources: the desire of the less industrialized countries for development collides with the limits of the biosphere. In this situation all that the industrialized countries can really offer is their universal remedy of unleashing the forces of growth. But is the imperative of economic growth really fit for the future?
The Chapters:
- Climate Chaos, Peak Oil and the Biodiversity Crisis
- A World with Accumulated Demands
- Growth vs. Wealth
