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What is sustainability? ![]() if ($rm == "") { ?>
Under the two main concerns of severe ecological damage and the natural biophysical limits of an economy, two main lines of thought developed: weak vs. strong sustainability. The weak sustainability concept was developed by Robert Solow and John Hartwick, two neoclassical economists. According to this view, what matters for future generations is the total aggregate stock of capital (human-made and natural). It does not matter how much of non-renewable resources current generations use or how much they pollute, has long as there are enough built infrastructures to compensate. By contrast, the strong sustainability concept basically says that natural capital is non-substitutable; it recognizes the unaccounted ecological services and life-support functions performed by many forms of natural capital and the considerable risk associated with their irreversible loss. |