Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Sustainable Development Isn't!

A favorite term of ecologists, sustainable development is nothing less than an absurdity. Development infers expansion, and ecosystems can not sustain a condition of growth indefinitely. But capitalism, as observed by Marx, must grow or it will die, and as it is the dominant mode of economic organization, the basic incompatibility of growth and development with an intact ecology must be elided, even as countless ecosystems and species around the planet are being irreversibly depleted. As things stand presently, the planet's fastest growing capitalist enterprise, the People's Republic of China, is, as per the story at the link below, set to over reach in the sort of way that has, as in the case of, oh, say, Easter Island, resulted in spectacular failure. Unfortunately, the rest of us are right in there with them.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080610/sc_afp/wwfchinaenvironment

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