From the editor.

• Position: Brief Article - Editorial

What is "sustainable development"? This is the question that Richard Saunier asks us to consider in this issue's Inter-American Viewpoint. A goal almost universally agreed to, sustainable development is replete with multiple definitions and conflicting assumptions. In meanings broad and narrow, this issues of Americas reflects on the many interpretations of sustainable development.

The seemingly irreversible process by which the Earth's resources are used to feed its endlessly growing population, and the economic determinism implied in that process, mean that natural habitats and their biological diversity are routinely encroached upon and diminish. Jeffrey Cohn describes the possible approaches to preventing the eventual extinction of the beautiful jaguar and their probability of success, while Louis Werner, in his study of historic hurricanes, shows how from prehistory to the present the effects of these storms have contributed to or crippled the development of societies. Certain areas of the Americas are continually repairing massive storm damage, and are therefore seldom able to accumulate the resources that will allow their development to be sustainable.

The nineteenth century, however, was marked by an exuberant confidence that progress was inevitable, that science held the solutions to problems of development, and that remedies could be devised and discover to sustain the growth of human society, especially in the New World. It was that optimism, Mike Ceasar explains, that brought a young Swiss researcher, Moises Bertoni, to Paraguay in 1884. Yet by the end of his life, Bertoni would sadly foretell the devastating effects of deforestation that would change his beloved adopted land.

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