Growth vs. Development

In a chapter on ecological economics, The Encyclopedia of Earth (http://www.eoearth.org/article/ An_Introduction_to_ Ecological_Economics:_ Chapter_3#Growth_vs._Development) discusses the distinction between growth and development.
“Growth is destructive of natural capital and beyond some point will cost us more than it is worth—that is, sacrificed natural capital will be worth more than the extra man-made capital whose production necessitated the sacrifice. At this point growth has become anti-economic, impoverishing rather than enriching. Development, or qualitative improvement, is not at the expense of natural capital. There are clear economic limits to growth, but not to development. This is not to assert that there are no limits to development, only that they are not so clear as the limits to growth, and consequently there is room for a wide range of opinion on how far we can go in increasing human welfare without increasing resource throughput. How far can development substitute for growth?”

This is an interesting and germane topic for environmental managers. A potential goal of this subtopic collaboratory is to develop our own professional position paper on this issue.

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