Maybe the Moon

Proofreading my IJESD article together with Nilla. Discovering numerous unconscious mistakes, repeated words and phrases that are embarrassingly Swedish in origin. Content-wise I feel quite happy about it, the piece complements my O&E-article from June by contextualizing the same dilemma in the vocabulary of sustainable development.

As I write in the abstract, two strands of thought on sustainable development have emerged over the years, often identified as ecologism and environmentalism respectively. In the article I suggest that there exists a third rhetorically excluded option, namely large-scale industrial expansion into space. Access to raw materials found on the Moon as well as unfiltered solar energy would dramatically increase the stock of resources and energy while providing unlimited sinks for pollutants; thus satisfying two of the determining factors of sustainability.


Traditionally, the dilemma of resource scarcity has been a concern for environmentalists calling for a reduction of energy and material flows. Correspondingly, the promise of space exploration has been limited to technological optimists whose economic framework rarely acknowledges any such scarcity. By reconciling the politics of scarcity with technological optimism, the article proposes a unifying political vision for the 21st century.