Industrial Ecology - Criticisms

Criticisms

The discipline of industrial ecology is to a large part based on the implicit assumption that if “we just get our technologies right”, the problems of environmental pollution and unsustainability will be solved. This is the reason why most current research in industrial ecology is focused on technological innovation (i.e., the T in the IPAT equation, such as improvements in eco-efficiency, design for environment, material flow analysis, etc. This simplistic view has been recently questioned by Huesemann and Huesemann who demonstrate that negative unintended consequences of technology are inherently unpredictable and unavoidable, that most current techno-optimism reflected in industrial ecology is unjustified, and that modern technology, in the presence of continued economic growth, does not promote sustainability, but hastens collapse. Therefore, more than technological tinkering is needed to achieve long-term sustainability. Most importantly, the problem of human overpopulation must be addressed immediately and a transition to a steady state economy is needed to guarantee environmental and societal sustainability.