impoverished countries has great power over the citizens and workers, who are generally illtreated and not in a position to influence their personal lot, let alone the environmental impact of a giant corporation. Often businesses take advantage of a state’s poor economic circumstance, imposing poor working standards and poor environmental practices. Trade accords such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade tend to depict environmental laws as illegal barriers to commerce. With this in mind, it seems that the enemies of development and the enemies of the environment are not as disparate as they might have appeared. The forces of the world that work against equitable wealth distribution and decent living standards are the same forces that work against a sustainable, healthy environment. Poor workers and the natural world are both viewed fundamentally as resources to be exploited for private gain. Structural inequities are equally damaging to the goals of development and of protecting the environment; they threaten the achievement of a global consensus on issues such as the environment and development and, without a global consensus, much progress is paralysed. The environment needs to be taken seriously as an issue for development for the simple fact that it has a serious impact on the quality of people’s lives. Sustainable development is defined by the World
Conservation Union as ‘improving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems’. The second part of that definition is almost axiomatic; the quality of human life cannot be improved apart from within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems, at least in the long term. If development organisations seriously want to help those that cannot help themselves, they should start with the environmental issues that demand frightening urgency.
The world’s poorest people are already being, and will continue to be, hit hardest by climate change The world’s poorest people are already being, and will continue to be, hit hardest by climate change; by floods, droughts, and diseases. The effects will be so catastrophic that much of the good that has been done in the name of development will be reversed. If development agencies want to help those blighted by poverty and injustice, the biggest threat currently facing them is an
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