Resumo

PACHECO, Luis F.. El ambiente como base del desarrollo y algunos criterios para evaluar nuestro camino hacia días mejores. Rev. Umbr. Cs. Soc. [online]. 2012, n.23, pp. 299-320. ISSN 1994-4543.

Economic growth has been maintained as the basis and goal of development for a long time, although this position was severely criticized by several authors, and from different perspectives. In this essay, I argument some reasons to discard economic growth as the basis for development, and advance five criteria as indicators of a new pathway to real development, which must be based on the environment and its conservation. Additionally, I propose two fundamental questions that should be considered when planning for development at any scale: How many people will this environment support? and what will their consumption rates be?

Palavras-chave : Economic development; true development; consumption rates; equal access to resources; agro systems ; biodiversity.