Industrial restructuring: does it have to be "jobs vs. trees"?

Abstract

Too often, debate between environmentalists and economists has quickly descended to an unseemly hassle over "jobs vs. trees", with neither party doing much to advance their cause. Clearly a sustainable society will have to be one whose factories minimize waste and otherwise be more ecologically kind. But this does not mean a nation's economic activities must go into reverse, as Udo Simonis demonstrates in the following article. His study of 32 industrialized countries shows that a number of nations have been able to cut back on activities by the worst environmen­tal offenders, while their GNP continued to show healthy growth. But all-out pursuit of economic success, his analysis seems to suggest, can neutralize even the most ambitious conservation measures. Dr. Simonis is Professor of Environmental Policy Studies at the Science Center Berlin, Germany. He is also associated with the UNU as Coordinator for the UNU project on industrial metabolism: restructuring for sustainable development.