Sustainable development: between reality and our interpretation of the world: Empiricism put to test by falling productivity

Now that it has reached its final stage, globalisation reveals to us the limits of humanity's exploitation of the ecosystem. Once regarded as a cardinal virtue, productivity gains in the past merely accelerated the consumption of the planet's resources. Only the expansion of their exploitation, through the conquest of new territories and new populations, ensured their renewal. Having enabled the survival and then the hegemony of the naked ape on Earth, productivity can no longer continue to grow. The daily pressures exerted on employees at all levels now resemble the labour of Sisyphus. Worse still, by systematically responding to declining productivity with productivity campaigns, the productive apparatus continues to widen the ecological deficit and, consequently, to fuel the root of the problem. Sustainable development, if it is ever to take hold, will necessarily require an end to the race for productivity gains.