Windows on the future:: Global scenarios & sustainability

Of all the environmental policy concepts to emerge in the last 20 years, none is more compelling than that of sustainability. The reason, of course, is the growing recognition that humanity is currently on an unsustainable path, that our activities have reached the point where they threaten the very life-support systems of the Earth. The need to preserve those systems was first put on the international policy agenda by the Brundtland Commission more than 10 years ago, which also formulated the classic definition of sustainable development, namely, development that “seeks to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability to meet those of the future.” The same goal has guided other international policy endeavors, notably the Earth Summit in 1992 and the recent climate negotiations in Kyoto. © 1998 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.