**3. Development of concepts**

A new step in science is often tied to the development of a new concept. A good example is Darwin's "natural selection" from 1859 [3]. This concept soon became basic for our way of thinking within biology and opened doors for progress in a number of biological disciplines. In 1973, the evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky formulated the famous statement that "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution" [4]. The term "evolution" is a term which today we accept as a given. Within the discipline of ecology, the great progress during the last hundred years has been fuelled by a continuous development of new concepts. In order to study, understand, and discuss how processes in nature are working and connected, concepts like food chains, food webs, trophic levels and energy budgets are basic. The 1965 version of Odum's classic textbook "Fundamentals of Ecology" [5] was structured upon a systematic presentation of such concepts. At that time, also terms like succession, niche, mutualism, commensalism, and others were in use. Later, ecological insight has grown strongly due to a number of other fruitful concepts like island biogeography, socio-biology, conservation biology, metapopulations, key species, cascade effects and many others. A university exam in ecology today could well be to define a number of central ecological concepts.

This example illustrates how fruitful the evolution of concepts is, and our dependence on them. But it also illustrates that a lack of concepts limits our insight, and also our ability to talk about a topic. Today's environmental change cries for insight, discussions and action – collective action. The following presentation will illustrate how a gradual development of new concepts has been fruitful within sustainable thinking, but also that a further conceptual development is necessary.

#### **3.1. Sustainable development: A concept that triggered a breed of new concepts**

#### *3.1.1. Global concensus about a foggy concept*

formulation "Think globally and act locally" is both good rhetoric and contains a conceptual core about how we all can participate to solve common challenges. In a separate section,

After having illustrated the importance of concepts, attitudes and rhetoric in order to shape environmental action, the problem of mental barriers will be discussed. We have all an ability to suppress, or deny, environmental threats. This psychological mechanism supports "busi‐ ness as usual". The book "Collapse – how societies choose to fail or succeed" warns us about

An important product of sustainable thinking should be to create hope. Concepts, attitudes and rhetoric are helpful not only to describe problems, but also to show possibilities. This will

Except for Introduction, Discussion and Conclusions, this is a review paper based on relevant scientific literature, as well as a number of books and articles which illustrate the debate about

*Development of concepts.* Here, the gradual refinement of the sustainability concept has been summarized. Since its "foggy" presentation in 1987 [1], the concept has been vividly discussed, and a number of new concepts have evolved in order to analyse and implement it. We shall also study the rise of applied ecological thinking, how global warming has triggered new concepts, and the difficulty of expressing the value of nature as a source of life quality.

*Development of attitudes.* While concepts can be adopted, attitudes have to be personally

*Our ability to deny or suppress environmental threats.* This is a summing up from Jared Diamond's

In the Discussion, we are reminded that concepts, attitudes and rhetoric must have the necessary quality. In debates, we must be ready to argue against misuse of concepts, unsus‐ tainable attitudes, "greenwashing" of unsustainable activity, and a "counter-rhetoric" which

A new step in science is often tied to the development of a new concept. A good example is Darwin's "natural selection" from 1859 [3]. This concept soon became basic for our way of thinking within biology and opened doors for progress in a number of biological disciplines.

*Rhetoric matters.* Here, selected citations are presented to illustrate the power of language.

sustainability. The review part has been structured into four topics:

developed. The process of developing attitudes is exemplified.

book "Collapse – How societies choose to fail or succeed" [2].

examples of well-formulated statements from various authors will be cited.

this psychological trap [2].

126 Environmental Change and Sustainability

be discussed in a final section.

**2. Material and methods**

defends "business as usual".

**3. Development of concepts**

In 1987, the Brundtland Commission's report *Our Common Future* [1] presented the concept of "sustainable development". It was defined as a development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". However, this well-meant concept rapidly turned out to be problematic [6-9].

Firstly, the commission had argued for strong and continuous economic growth in order to reach sustainable aims, and even today, many politicians talk about "sustainable growth". However, economic growth was soon identified as a major cause behind environmental problems. Consequently, some observers called sustainable development an *oxymoron*: fundamentally contradictory and irreconcilable. Secondly, the term is so "creatively ambigu‐ ous" that anyone can redefine and reapply the term to fit their purposes and proceed with business as usual. For instance, companies with an environmentally harmful activity could make small, cosmetic adjustments and then characterize themselves as "green" or "environ‐ mentally friendly". Such "greenwashing" of environmentally destructive activities became a problem. Clearly, the well-meant concept needed to be problematized: What should be sustained, what are the ultimate aims in a sustainable community, and which conflicts have to be solved – for instance between economic activity and other aims?

After eight years of debate, a clarification of terms was given [6]. A kind of concensus had been reached that we should distinguish between three parallel, but interconnected, aims of sustainability: Environmental, economic, and social sustainability. In addition, within each of these concepts, there was a need for subconcepts [6], as explained below.
