SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - ECONOMIC-IMPLICATIONS

The conditions for achieving environmentally sustainable development are discussed. The point of departure is the theoretical insight that choosing a path leading to the environmental collapse may be, under certain circumstances, a socially optimal strategy. Ecologists' recommendations to renounce a discounting of future welfare as well as the notion of substitutability of consumption and environmental quality and a monetary evaluation of environmental goods are shown not to avoid the desaster. A more optimistic perspective of sustainability is presented emphasizing the present generation's self-interest in carefully handling the natural resource base.