Ethics, engineering, and sustainable development

T he term 'sustainable devel-opment' dates back to the early 1970s when certain business and government leaders began to argue that exponential growth —in human populations and industrial-ization — simply cannot continue indefinitely. One such group of leaders, the Club of Rome, issued a report, Limits to Growth, now recognized as a cornerstone piece of literature for the movement. In a tone somewhat reminiscent of the pessimism of 19 th century Malthu-sianism, Limits warned of impending ecological disaster should nothing be done immediately to halt resource depletion, excessive energy consumption, population growth, too much pollution and waste, inappropriate technology transfer, and related problems. The response to reports like Limits to Growth was mixed. Some critics tried to ignore the message, simply sticking to the old but entrenched belief that nature possesses inexhaustible resources, permitting it to bounce back from even the most severe depletion and contamination. Proponents of sustainable development, on the other hand, campaigned vigorously to limit growth at local, national, and global levels. Sustainable development gained momentum and worldwide familiarity thanks to the Bruntland Com-mission's 1987 report, Our Common Future, sponsored by the World Council on Economic Development (WCED). This breakthrough report demonstrated that economic development and environmental protection are not necessarily in conflict. Instead, the potentially synergistic tension between economics and the environment is nicely captured in the Commis-sion's celebrated definition of 'sus