Sustainable Development As Deus Ex Machina
Biological Conservation 209 (2017) 54–61 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Biological Conservation journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/bioc Discussion Sustainable development as deus ex machina Claudio Campagna a,b,⁎,DanielGuevarac, Bernard Le Boeuf d a Wildlife Conservation Society, Marine and Argentina Programs, Amenábar 1595, 1426 Buenos Aires, Argentina b Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, United States c Department of Philosophy, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, United States d Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Institute for Marine Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, United States article info abstract Article history: The advocacy of sustainable development (SD) by governments, NGOs and scientists over the last three decades Received 3 August 2016 has failed to diminish the alarming species extinction rate fueled by overuse and habitat destruction. Attempts to Received in revised form 9 January 2017 satisfy worldwide demands for economic growth and development have, in fact, thwarted conservation efforts Accepted 25 January 2017 and greatly diminished the diversity and abundance of life forms, including key iconic species. Here, we argue Available online xxxx that this crisis is one of values rooted in a discourse that justifies development and downplays the morality of human-caused extinction of life forms. The language of SD does not convey the loss—worse, it masks or rational- Keywords: Language izes it as blameless or necessary. The language of SD represents the loss in biodiversity as fallout from the reduced Conservation discourse capacity of ecosystems to provide services for human benefit, while providing no sense of the values necessary Species crisis for conserving life for its own sake.
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