Introduction

Abstract

One of the questions asked by many policy-makers, activists and scholars after the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) was ‘Did we save the earth’? Needless to say, the answers vary: some answer yes, some answer no and some answer maybe but it’s too soon to tell. The ideas explored in this book, however, canvass more than responses to that specific, albeit important question. The main purpose of this text is to focus attention on a more fundamental question, ‘how should we save the earth?’, and to examine the often competing answers offered in response. The reasons why these questions should be asked is increasingly obvious.