Three persistent myths in the environmental debate

Abstract

Throughout the last three decades of working on environmental and resource problems I have encountered three persistent myths: (1) environment conflicts with employment; (2) production must grow to create scope for financing environmental conservation; and (3) although society would like to save the environment, it is too expensive. Testing these three propositions, individually and mutually, leads to the conclusion that as long as they dominate the environmental debate, the world will drift ever further away from environmental sustainability.