John E.Carroll

Bruce Rich

Nicholas Hildyard

Susan Baker

Edward Goldsmith

Larry Lohmann

The Ecologist, Vol. 19, No 2, 1989.

The Ecologist Volume 19, No. 2, March/April 1989

Editorial Acid Rain and World Trade

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Feature Articles The "Greening" of the Development Banks: Rhetoric and Reality

In 1987, the World Bank announced that in future it would take full account of the environmental impacts of its projects, and withdraw support from those "where safeguards are inadequate". Other multilateral development banks made similar commitments. But the rhetoric has still to be transformed into reality, as a review of the World Bank's current operations in Brazil and India reveals.

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Adios Amazonia? A Report from the Altimira Gathering 53 The recent gathering of Indians at Altimira in Brazil to protest against government plans to dam the river Xingu has highlighted the ecological and cultural holocaust now being unleashed on Amazonia. But even i f 'sustainable' development projects are adopted, can the forest and its peoples survive in a consumer-driven economy?

Community Survival and Lignite Mining in Ireland 63 Plans to strip-mine lignite on the shores of Lough Neagh in the North of Ireland are threatening to destroy not only the Lough's tight-knit fishing community but also the local environment. The government agencies and the multinational companies backing the scheme have proved unaccountable and the survival of a sustainable way of life looks set to be sacrificed for short-term gain.

Towards a Biospheric Ethic 68 Modern biologists tend to view the natural world as purposeless, competitive and devoid of morality — a view that contemporary philosphers have used to justify the claim that only modern man is an "ethical" animal and that moral progress is only achieved through the domination of nature. It is a view founded on a grossly distorted reading of the natural world, and it must be rejected in favour of a new 'biospheric' ethic.

Report The Thai Logging Ban and its Consequences 76

Books 78 Books Digest 81 Letters 82 Cover Layout: John Mclntyre. Photograph: Arthur Tarnowski

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