The developing role of ecotoxicology in industrial ecology and natural capitalism.

Achieving sustainable use of the planet will require a new paradigm regarding the relationship between human society and the environment and a concomitant paradigm on the responsibility of those now living to provide a quality life for their descendants for an indefinite period of time. Both industrial ecology and natural capitalism provide useful guidelines and case histories on how these two paradigm shifts might be achieved. (1). The authors believe that the traditional definition of capital as "accumulated wealth in the form of investments, factories, and equipment" is inadequate and that an economy should be based on four types of capital to function properly: a) human capital, in the form of labor, intelligence, culture, and organization; b) financial capital, consisting of cash, investments, and monetary instruments; c) manufactured capital, including infrastructure , machines, tools, and factories; and d) natural capital, consisting of resources, living systems, and ecosystem services. Natural capitalism envisions the use of natural systems without abusing them, which is the essence of sustainable use of the planet. I do not use the term "sustainable development" because the word "development" implies growth to most people, and infinite growth on a finite planet is an oxymoron. Sustainable use of the planet requires that the relationship between human society and natural systems be sustainable and that the close relationship between ecosystem health and human health be recognized. Tibbs (2) believes that the view of industrial systems and ecosystems as polar opposites is archaic and that a continuum must develop from the merging of the two systems. The focus in industrial ecology is narrower than in natural capitalism, but the essential idea of the coexistence of industrial and natural ecosystems would encourage the protection and accumulation of natural capital in areas where it is now in danger or unlikely to flourish. McNeill (3) has shown that, in the course of the twentieth century , the human race has undertaken, without intending to do so, a giant and uncontrolled experiment on Earth. Unquestionably, environmental transformations have occurred during the twentieth century on a scale and at a rate that are unprecedented in human history. Ecotoxicologists are well aware that many of the effects of human society on natural systems are nonlinear and that a multiplicity of thresholds and break points exist, most of which only become apparent after they have been crossed. However, societal decisions are usually expressed through public and private institutions, …