Development, Ethical Sustainability and

The activities of a community are sustainable if it converts resources into waste no faster than its ecological support systems can convert waste into resources. While this ecological definition seems straightforward, sustainability also has a complex ethical dimension because it involves moral choices. Ethical sustainability, in the sense of morally justifiable sustainable living, is represented by the sum of our choices and policies designed to render our living sustainable that are most defensible under generally accepted theories of justice and ethics. Currently the activities of humanity as a whole and those of most human societies are far from sustainable. Ethical development describes how we can achieve the transition to sustainable living, as opposed to other interpretations of development that are often informed by quite contrary ...