Sustainable Development

The Brundtland Report, Our Common Future (1987), defines sustainable development as "development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". | To assume that we know what the circumstances or needs of future generations will be is mistaken and inevitably leads to the debilitating sense that we are living on borrowed time. | Implicit in this definition is the idea that the old pattern of development could not be sustained. Is this true? | Whatever happened to the idea of progress and a better future? I still believe in both. | Development in the past was driven by growth and innovation. It led to new technologies and huge improvements in living standards.