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Our common future: report of the World Commission on Environment and Development

Our common future: report of the World Commission on Environment and Development Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ia/article/64/1/126/2584311 by DeepDyve user on 17 August 2020 126 BOOK REVIEWS relationships. Lower social classes are more willing to tolerate a high rate of inflation in order to reduce unemployment than the higher social classes, and vice versa. Part three covers similar topics, but uses European as well as American data. All the articles which make up the book were written before the return of the second Thatcher government. One is bound to ask whether the models would stand up to explaining the return of a third Thatcher government, with unemployment in Britain continuing to run at over three million. University ofDundee JOSEPH M. JACKSON Oxford: Oxford University Press for World Commission on Environment and Development. 1987. 383pp. Pb. £5.95. ISBN 0 19282020 X. ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS graduated some time ago from the conservationist fringe to the economic and political centre-stage. Our common future is an important book, though one's sense that it is so is not enhanced by the remark on the back cover that it is 'the most important document of the decade on the future of the world'-a sentiment that ignores the book's own opening sentence: 'The Earth is one but the world is not.' There, indeed, is the rub. To quote again: 'The world must quickly design strategies that will allow nations to move from their present, often destructive, process of growth. . . onto sustainable development paths. This will require policy changes in all countries, with respect both to their own development and to their impacts on [others']' (p. 49). But we know that this is unlikely to happen, certainly not quickly; if it does, it will only be after a great deal more research, domestic political action, and international negotiation. Think of the recent negotiations in Europe on acid rain, or in a wider context, on chlorfluorocarbon emissions. Both cases have been hampered by uncertainty about what the physical causes and consequences actually are-though that uncertainty is, to say the least, limited-and by opposing economic and commercial interests within and between countries. Many readers may be put off by the style. There are quite a few unfocused imperatives about what should be done, like that cited above. But they should persevere. The best way to read the book is as an agenda. As such it is very complete, and well supported by information on environmental issues and current research. It is also quite balanced, reflecting the very diverse outlooks of the Brundtland Commission's members. This is particularly noticeable in the discussion of nuclear energy, where some might have expected a more condemnatory tone. The one place that could do with more balance is the treatment of big dams in developing countries, whose vices are more often offset by virtues than the text allows. Otherwise, a little less balance might have been welcome. Our common future argues persuasively for closer relations between economy and ecology. One trouble is that the economics are often unknown: for example, the economic value of organic species threatened with extinction, which may well be enormous. The costs of various forms of environmental damage may also be unknown, though again often enormous: the United States and Canada have been spending huge sums on cleaning up the Great Lakes, which must be well in excess of what it would have cost to prevent their pollution. These are among the reasons why the issues are so political. When costs and benefits cannot be measured, decisions have to be taken on other grounds. The most straightforward principle is to leave our descendants no worse off than we are. Pursuing that principle is less straightforward. The Commission could usefully have reflected more on how conflicting interests can be reconciled, and political coalitions constructed. But their work is done. The world will ignore it at the Earth's, and the world's, peril. International Development Centre, Oxford R. H. CASSEN Does aid work? Report to an intergovernmental task force. By Robert Cassen and associates. Oxford: Clarendon for World Bank/International Monetary Fund. 1986. 381pp. Pb.: £9.95. ISBN 0 19 877249 1. Foreign aid reconsidered. By Roger C. Riddell. London: J ames Currey for Overseas Development Institute, 1987. 309pp. Index. £25.00. ;ISBN 0852551037. Pb.: £9.95; ISBN 0 85255 1045. THERE ARE several reasons why these two studies are timely. They complement each other and usefully summarize current thinking on aid-that more aid is required, and that the determinant http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png International Affairs Oxford University Press

Our common future: report of the World Commission on Environment and Development

Cassen, R., H.
International Affairs , Volume 64 (1) – Jan 1, 1987
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Publisher
Oxford University Press
Copyright
© Royal Institute of International Affairs 1988
ISSN
0020-5850
eISSN
1468-2346
DOI
10.2307/2621529
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Abstract

Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ia/article/64/1/126/2584311 by DeepDyve user on 17 August 2020 126 BOOK REVIEWS relationships. Lower social classes are more willing to tolerate a high rate of inflation in order to reduce unemployment than the higher social classes, and vice versa. Part three covers similar topics, but uses European as well as American data. All the articles which make up the book were written before the return of the second Thatcher government. One is bound to ask whether the models would stand up to explaining the return of a third Thatcher government, with unemployment in Britain continuing to run at over three million. University ofDundee JOSEPH M. JACKSON Oxford: Oxford University Press for World Commission on Environment and Development. 1987. 383pp. Pb. £5.95. ISBN 0 19282020 X. ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS graduated some time ago from the conservationist fringe to the economic and political centre-stage. Our common future is an important book, though one's sense that it is so is not enhanced by the remark on the back cover that it is 'the most important document of the decade on the future of the world'-a sentiment that ignores the book's own opening sentence: 'The Earth is one but the world is not.' There, indeed, is the rub. To quote again: 'The world must quickly design strategies that will allow nations to move from their present, often destructive, process of growth. . . onto sustainable development paths. This will require policy changes in all countries, with respect both to their own development and to their impacts on [others']' (p. 49). But we know that this is unlikely to happen, certainly not quickly; if it does, it will only be after a great deal more research, domestic political action, and international negotiation. Think of the recent negotiations in Europe on acid rain, or in a wider context, on chlorfluorocarbon emissions. Both cases have been hampered by uncertainty about what the physical causes and consequences actually are-though that uncertainty is, to say the least, limited-and by opposing economic and commercial interests within and between countries. Many readers may be put off by the style. There are quite a few unfocused imperatives about what should be done, like that cited above. But they should persevere. The best way to read the book is as an agenda. As such it is very complete, and well supported by information on environmental issues and current research. It is also quite balanced, reflecting the very diverse outlooks of the Brundtland Commission's members. This is particularly noticeable in the discussion of nuclear energy, where some might have expected a more condemnatory tone. The one place that could do with more balance is the treatment of big dams in developing countries, whose vices are more often offset by virtues than the text allows. Otherwise, a little less balance might have been welcome. Our common future argues persuasively for closer relations between economy and ecology. One trouble is that the economics are often unknown: for example, the economic value of organic species threatened with extinction, which may well be enormous. The costs of various forms of environmental damage may also be unknown, though again often enormous: the United States and Canada have been spending huge sums on cleaning up the Great Lakes, which must be well in excess of what it would have cost to prevent their pollution. These are among the reasons why the issues are so political. When costs and benefits cannot be measured, decisions have to be taken on other grounds. The most straightforward principle is to leave our descendants no worse off than we are. Pursuing that principle is less straightforward. The Commission could usefully have reflected more on how conflicting interests can be reconciled, and political coalitions constructed. But their work is done. The world will ignore it at the Earth's, and the world's, peril. International Development Centre, Oxford R. H. CASSEN Does aid work? Report to an intergovernmental task force. By Robert Cassen and associates. Oxford: Clarendon for World Bank/International Monetary Fund. 1986. 381pp. Pb.: £9.95. ISBN 0 19 877249 1. Foreign aid reconsidered. By Roger C. Riddell. London: J ames Currey for Overseas Development Institute, 1987. 309pp. Index. £25.00. ;ISBN 0852551037. Pb.: £9.95; ISBN 0 85255 1045. THERE ARE several reasons why these two studies are timely. They complement each other and usefully summarize current thinking on aid-that more aid is required, and that the determinant

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International Affairs – Oxford University Press

Published: Jan 1, 1987

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