Thinking Green

Abstract

Reviews three broad perspectives on our relationship with Nature, and the environmental strategies which flow from them, two of which are identified with the Green movement. Argues that the first, which opposes economic growth and industrialism, is profoundly misguided though well‐intentioned and with wide appeal. By virtue of its association with the core ideal of a homeostatic relationship between human society and Nature, it is inextricably linked with the second perspective: a misanthropic one, which treats humanity itself as the cause of environmental problems and implies totalitarian solutions to these. The third perspective is a pragmatic one. It entails imaginative policy responses which can include regulation and taxation, but must, as in the issuing of tradeable permits, be tailored to act in symbiosis with market mechanisms.

Citation

Pearce, I. (1992), "Thinking Green", Environmental Management and Health, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 6-12. https://doi.org/10.1108/09566169210010842