Wilson, E.O. "To What End" in Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1998. pp 277 to 298.

This excerpt from Consilience touches broadly on all aspects of sustainable development—from a discussion of what it means to be a human being on this planet (homo sapiens versus homo proteus) to the trends that threaten our ability to sustain and achieve a good life for all members of society. It contains one of the most practical and pithy definitions of sustainable development I have ver come across, reproduced here: "The common aim must be to expand resources and improve the quality of life for as many people as heedless population growth forces upon the Earth, and do it with minimal prosthetic dependence. That, in essence, is the ethic of sustainable development. " Despite its somewhat (very?) Malthusian tone, this is an engaging philosophical, ecological and biological perspective on humanity and its environment. Wilson's cautions about a world built on technological fixes to the growing list of environmental problems is important (what he calls environmental prostheses).

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