ENST305

Novel ethical demands are being created as our world is transformed by economic globalization. Through such practices as high input agriculture and dependence upon fossil fuels, this transformation has adversely affected both global ecology and human communities. To meet the resulting ethical demands, a new ecological economics is required, one that respects the scale and carrying capacity limits of the earth's ecosystems. This new economic paradigm avoids the confusion that has attended the concept of "sustainable development," which, in creating tension between the developed and less developed nations, has fostered a worldwide debate on the meaning and content of an ethics of sustainability. In contrast, ecological economics lay the foundation for a society and communities that are sustainable economically, environmentally, and socially.