Abstract :
Several actors contribute to the spreading of environmental awareness in a society. In the Western industrialized world, all these actors have contributed to growing opposition to the destructive tendencies of technological progress, backed up by government regulations. Although this opposition is not yet powerful enough to stop or reverse continuing degradation of the environment, it has had some success in curtailing many direct threats to human life and health.
In those countries where development and establishment of a market system are now on the daily agenda, awareness of environmental impacts is not sufficiently widespread to have had significant influence on industrial and political decisions. The prevailing attitude is a loosely conceived determination to “grow now and clean later.” Little in the way of thorough analysis has gone into this attitude, which relies mostly on “common sense” and wishful thinking. However, different actors in these countries can have considerable impact on the development of effective environmental awareness. As I argue in the first part of this essay, sustainable development, in fact, depends on the cooperation of all these players. Measures aiming at the improvement of the environmental situation should include the establishment of an equilibrium among the actors. In the second section, I will analyze the role of firms, and emphasize their potential positive impact on the environmental situation.
