Pollution Prevention: The Source of an Ethical Foundation for Sustainable Development

Abstract

People live in two worlds. One of these is, of course, our own creation: human society. But, like all living things, we also live in the natural world -- the ecosphere -- created over the Earth's five-billion-year history by physical, chemical and biological processes. Because we accept responsibility for what happens in our own world, we are prepared to at least define -- if not always abide by -- moral precepts to govern that responsibility. Our attitude toward the natural world has been different; its storms, droughts and floods have been regarded as "acts of God", free of human control and exempt from our own responsibility.