Our Common Future (Oxford Paperbacks)

Our Common Future (Oxford Paperbacks)

In 1983, the U.N. General Assembly created the World Commission on Environment and Development, an independent committee of twenty-two members, headed by Gro Harlem Brundtland, the Prime Minister of Norway. Designed to examine global environment and development to the year 2000 and beyond, the commission seeks to reassess critical problems, to formulate realistic proposals for solving them, and to raise the level of understanding and commitment to the issues of environment and development. Rather than presenting a gloom and doom report about the destruction of natural resources, Our Common Future offers an agenda advocating the growth of economies based on policies that do not harm, and can even enhance, the environment. The commission recognizes that the time has come for a marriage of economy and ecology, in order to ensure the growth of human progress through development without bankrupting the resources of future generations. `a remarkably comprehensive guide to environmental concerns around the world. The book is a compact educator.' Garbage`The ... volume is one of thorough analysis and passionate argument...it contains much lively challenge.' Reconciliation Quarterly`a bold and important document. What is more, unlike so many prestigious predecessors of this genre, it is highly readable ...Our Common Future should underpin all the current deliberations on the state of the world economy.' Jonathon Porritt, The Diplomat'The volume is one of thorough analysis and passionate argument ... it contains much lively challenge ... essentially a specialist study which usefully avoids the exaggerations of ideology which have often bedevilled the whole debate on aid.''Essential reading for courses on development.' P.J. O'Brien, University of Glasgow'The most important document of the decade on the future of the world.' The Advertiser, Australia The most important document produced during The Decade on the Future of the World The Brundtland Commission - formally the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), known by the name of its Chair Gro Harlem Brundtland, was convened by the United Nations in response to the 1983 General Assembly Resolution A/38/161 - "Process of preparation of the Environmental Perspective to the Year 2000 and Beyond" welcoming the establishment of such a Commission.