The Unassuming Economist

From Humanity on Trial:

“As discussed on the environmental integration page, cognitive environmental integration has two dimensions: the internal dimension refers to the existence or creation of an overarching cognitive framework that can provide guidance on what environmental processes, limits, principles or imperatives need to be respected to preserve the environmental systems on which life, including human life, depends; the external dimension refers to the integration of those ‘parameters’ as core elements into the cognitive frameworks (ideologies; theories, management frameworks and other) that guide human behaviour, actions and practices in what are usually regarded non-environmental areas, such as economic thinking, ideas, theories or models guiding the development of energy systems, technology, agriculture, transport, the production and consumption of goods and services, the design and construction of buildings and the built-up environment, and any other areas that have (potentially) a significant impact on the environment.

It may surprise those who think that the creation and adoption of such an overarching cognitive environmental framework at the global level is a utopian idea that, in practice, this is an area of environmental integration in which global efforts have been relatively successful. I am referring here, in particular, to the rise of the notion of sustainable development and the extent to which it has been adopted by governments worldwide and international organisations.”

Continue reading here.