BY DR CHEE SU YIN
TO SOME FOLKS, the words sustainable and development can never exist side by side. Their essence is on opposite sides of the spectrum. A juxtaposition. The term “sustainable” seeks to exhort nature while “development” is usually associated with destroying it. You cannot develop and conserve at the same time. Surely when development is carried out, nature loses.
Yes, this is true to some extent. Humans have been developing landscapes and modifying the face of the earth for millennia. In the process, we have replaced vast areas of natural ecosystems with hard-engineered, concrete structures.
