
In 1983, the U.N. General Assembly created the World Commission on Environment and Development, an independent committee of twenty-two members, headed by Gro Harlem Brundtland, the Prime Minister of Norway. Designed to examine global environment and development to the year 2000 and beyond, the commission seeks to reassess critical problems, to formulate realistic proposals for solving them, and to raise the level of understanding and commitment to the issues of environment and development.Rather than presenting a gloom and doom report about the destruction of natural resources, Our Common Future offers an agenda advocating the growth of economies based on policies that do not harm, and can even enhance, the environment. The commission recognizes that the time has come for a marriage of economy and ecology, in order to ensure the growth of human progress through development without bankrupting the resources of future generations.
The report investigates how global economic development can be reconciled with the preservation of natural resources to ensure long-term human progress. The World Commission on Environment and Development, chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland, synthesizes data from international experts to argue that economic growth and environmental protection are not mutually exclusive. The text provides a framework for sustainable development, emphasizing the responsibility of current generations to manage resources for the benefit of the future.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Experts recognize this text as the foundational document that popularized the concept of sustainable development in international policy. Readers frequently note the clarity of its arguments, which remain a standard reference point for environmental studies and global policy discourse.
Page Count:
416
Publication Date:
1987-05-21
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
019282080X
ISBN-13:
9780192820808
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