Systemic thinking in environmental management: support for sustainable development

Our society has been undergoing a transition process from a mechanicist to a systemic or ecological paradigm. Within the environmental context, this transition represents an issue of survival for man and for the biosphere itself, which is being constantly assaulted by manʹs productive activities and as a result of this has been suffering great physical changes. The currently adopted development model is highly consumerist and predatory. A systemic vision of the world and its application in the process of environmental management is essential to transcend our present day development model and to reach a fair and ecologically correct social model or, in other words, sustainable development (SD).