Ecological Sustainability in a Developing Country such as South Africa? A Philosophical and Ethical Inquiry
Author(s)
Hattingh, Johan; Attfield, Robin
Abstract
Although South Africa has adopted the notion of ecologically sustainable development not only as a human right entrenched in its Constitution, but also as one of its major policy objectives, there are major practical, conceptual, and ethical stumbling blocks impeding the achievement of this goal. In this article we investigate the conceptual and some of the ethical problems, including apparent conflicts with other pressing goals such as the alleviation of poverty. We conclude that the concept of ecologically sustainable development has a substantive core, and that radical reforms of human systems allow this right and goal to be reconciled with other human needs. “Before we allow further destruction of nature, or what is left of nature, we should first reverse the unwise decisions of the past that made environmental destruction possible and ‘inevitable’ in the first place. We should not allow nature, or what is left of it, to pay the ultimate price for the unwise human decisions of the past. So we should rather focus on the human system to make it more efficient and effective, to make it more just and fair, to make it less exploitative of people and of nature. Nothing less is required by the path of development. Now, if this argument is sound, … the conservation of nature and natural ecosystems need not be incompatible with human interests in survival”.
