Our Environment Contents

4. Resources

Environmental resources are assets which must be safeguarded from one generation to the next

The core condition for sustainable development, according to modern economic theory is that the present generation should bequeath to future generations a stock of capital assets (including environmental resources) which is no less than that which it itself inherited. Just as worn out machinery needs to be renewed, replaced or refurbished for continued economic prosperity, so do other capital assets, including depleted environmental resources. The core economic condition for sustainability requires that at least as much capital (including environmental resources) should be introduced as is lost through depletion from one generation to the next.

Money

Do you agree that environmental resources are economic assets?