Endangering the Natural Basis of Life Is Unjust: On the Status and Future of the Sustainability Discourse

Becker, Christian; Ewringmann, Dieter; Faber, Malte; Petersen, Thomas Søbirk; Zahrnt, Angelika

doi:10.1080/21550085.2015.1020729

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Jonas' approach is to reformulate the classical term of responsibility in the context of environmental destruction. He developed an "imperative of responsibility" that basically augments the obligation of humans to preserve the natural environment as it is the foundation of human existence (see Jonas 1979: 36;Baumgärtner et al 2006b: 226;Becker et al 2015). The root of this obligation lies in the power given to human beings by technology and the potentially destructive dynamics generated by it.…”

Section: Approaching the Ethical Core Of The Environmental Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptual and political foundations for examining the interaction between nature and economy

Faber¹,

Frick²

2020

A Research Agenda for Environmental Economics

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The aim of this paper is to contribute to an innovative agenda in the field of Environmental Economics. The paper focusses on a conceptual and political perspective on the interactions between nature and economy. Section 1 states that Environmental Economics has to consider three fields: nature, justice and the role of time. To operationalize this claim, we introduce fundamental concepts such as entropy, joint production, ignorance, evolution, absolute scarcity, responsibility and homo politicus and explain them in Section 2. These concepts are applied in Section 3 using a historical example, namely the soda-chlorine industry, extending over a period of about three centuries. The lessons taken from this economic, environmental and political evolution are outlined in Section 4. In Section 5, we apply the concept of responsibility to address political aspects dealt with when examining the interplay between nature and economy. In our outlook in Section 6, we argue that these concepts and further concepts do not form a hierarchically structured system. Instead they are conceived as a network of interdependent concepts that reference each other but also remain categorically distinct from one another.

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Section: Approaching the Ethical Core Of The Environmental Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptual and political foundations for examining the interaction between nature and economy

Faber¹,

Frick²

2020

A Research Agenda for Environmental Economics

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Ecosystem services, such as provision of clean drinking water, clean breathing air, clean plants for food and clean aquatic animals for food, are the natural basis for life because they cannot be substituted with any human artefacts. This means that preservation of the natural basis of life is a requirement of justice, as it is a necessary condition for order of societies and the global community (Becker et al 2015).…”

Section: Pollution and Its Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable development or Environmental Kuznets Curve model: Which route for Africa?

Gara

2018

Environ Dev Sustain

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The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) proposes uncontrolled pollution during initial development stage of a nation and then a gradual shift to environmental protection and remediation as income (GDP) improves, a developmental route that was used by a few countries. This theory, however, is marred with a lot of conceptual and ecological errors. Importantly, there is little evidence of an EKC pathway, mainly because the "statistical analysis on which the EKC is based is not robust" (Stern in International society for ecological economics internet encyclopaedia of ecological economics the Environmental Kuznets Curve, 2003). This study investigates through questionnaire survey, the opinions of young African students studying in China, on the issue of development with environmental pollution and degradation. Results show that 72% of respondents agreed to development with pollution citing EKC, an outcome that indicates the possible developmental route likely to be followed by majority of Africa. The study concluded that environmental protection discussions should not be done at economic level but at ethical level to save human life and conserve biodiversity. The study recommends that all nations, regardless of level of economic development, be encouraged to mainstream the AICHI Biodiversity Targets in their national (local) developmental plans to ensure sustainable development agenda fulfilment. Also, as a precautionary measure, nations should embrace the "polluter-stopspolluting" against the usual "polluter-pays-principle".

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Ethical underpinnings for the economy of the Anthropocene: Sustainability ethics as key to a sustainable economy

Becker

2023

Ecological Economics

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Endangering the Natural Basis of Life Is Unjust: On the Status and Future of the Sustainability Discourse

Cited by 6 publications

References 11 publications

Conceptual and political foundations for examining the interaction between nature and economy

Conceptual and political foundations for examining the interaction between nature and economy

Sustainable development or Environmental Kuznets Curve model: Which route for Africa?

Ethical underpinnings for the economy of the Anthropocene: Sustainability ethics as key to a sustainable economy

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