In an episode of Shark Tank, an entrepreneur tried to get investment money for a reusable dry cleaning bag. Her plea to the sharks was that dry cleaning uses far too many plastic bags, which end up polluting our earth. However, it was revealed that her start-up was actually in a money deficit. Kevin O'Leary, aka Mr. Wonderful, said that "the trouble with green, it doesn't work unless there's an economic reason. People fundamentally want to want to save the planet, unless it costs them something". She didn't get any of the sharks to back her company.
Kevin's line lives rent-free in my head and ALWAYS pops up whenever there is discussion about sustainability/going green/being more environmentally friendly/etc. It definitely popped up when I read about the Yasuní-ITT initiative - I knew it was too good to be true the moment I started reading it. In a world full of greedy people, money is a necessary part to sustainability. The author's definition of sustainable development also reflects this: "sustainable development protects the environment, facilitates economic well-being, and enables people to have the capacity to make their own choices about resource use" (pg. 5).
Opposing the traditional development path, is the Nacional para el Buen Vivir (National Plan for Good Living). Unlike the traditional development path, which focuses almost exclusively on economic growth, the concept focuses on sustainable development, as well as considering the quality of life of the people.
The author then introduces the concept of the treadmill of production (TOP), as well as the key players in the TOP theory. The theory basically states that influential individuals benefit more when there is increased production and economic growth at the cost of environmental and societal damage. Corporation seek profits since individuals within the corporations obtain those profits, however, since humans are short-lived, short-term profits are far more desired than long-term. The issue is that short-term profits will cause environmental and societal degradation. There exist two other players in the TOP besides the corporations, which are: the government/state, as well as citizen-workers. The state also benefits when there is increased production and economic growth, since it can collect more taxes from the corporations, as well as from the citizens. However, the state must also protect the citizens, since it it built upon the citizens, and cannot function without them. Individually, citizens are powerless, but collectively, people have power. As such, the citizen-workers can be split into two groups: the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the social movement actors (SMAs). NGOs are recognized by the state and represent a sector, whereas SMAs are not recognized by the state.
The author also discusses three types of developmental trajectories and syntheses: economic synthesis, managed scarcity, and ecological synthesis. The economic synthesis is the dominant synthesis, which promotes economic growth at the cost of the environment and the well-being of individuals. Managed scarcity promotes sustainable development, and as such has limits to growth and a range of policies to protect the environment and the people. Finally, the ecological synthesis' main objective is the well-being of the environment, as well as the people, as such, it exercises many limits on market forces.