Global Ecologism and its Critics

Abstract

The universal consensus that the environment holds the key to human (and non-human) survival lends itself to no agreement as to how to create a globally sustainable society. Varying perceptions and interpretations of the promises and predicaments posed by the pursuance or lack of pursuance of ‘sustainable development’ have engulfed the South and the North in competing claims over who is responsible for the environmental damage and who should pay for it. Although the North is aware that its economic prosperity is responsible for most of the environmental damage done thus far, its search for viable solutions has been centred around a covert desire to maintain the status quo. In the event, it is not surprising that global ecologism has been largely perceived by the South as an exclusionist ideology used to feign and hence mystify the deeds of the Old World Order under pretext claims about the emergence of a New World Order.