Chris,

Deforestation in the Third World (or redeveloping nations if you like that term) is one of China's biggest exports. China takes away their timber at little profit for the nation being exploited and leaves them with large scale environmental degradation.

FYI, costa rica is a liberal democracy.

"how do you factor in political corruption and its influence on positive decision making?"

I don't. Political corruption is just part of the system, worse in some systems, better in others. But its been around since the dreamtime and will be around when there are kick-backs to build the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Restaurant_at_the_End_of_the_Universe)

Eventually, the outcome will occur irrespective of the level of political involvement and/or the errors made by the political system.
Politics tried to kill the fracking revolution but failed. The digital revolution occurred quite outside the political realm and sometimes against the wishes of the power structure.

We know that reforestation occurs once a society reaches a given level of economic well-being although to date that's only occurred in liberal democracies. We'll await the outcome in China. Ask me again in 2040.

But let's not get too hooked up on forestry. Despite all the hype, the reforestation of the planet has already begun everywhere other than the least developed regions. As they develop the reforestation will only accelerate in the next 30 years.

It was the next 30 years we were talking about, n'est pas.

Dear Chris Lewis,

You wrote; “FYI, costa rica is a liberal democracy.”

Why are you telling me this? What gave you the idea that I didn't know it was?

The argument was that Western democracy and capitalism can not achieve a nation wide sustainable environment. I think this is fairly obvious, certainly not on their own. It has taken the contribution of socialistic values to allow Costa Rica to achieve what it has. These have been sourced from the strong social democratic values of its two main parties.

I'm not really wanting to debate muddied political definitions but the policies of Costa Rica are a far cry from those of the US and even Australia and are far more conducive to achieving large scale environmental sustainability. Devotion to market based solutions will never cut it.

Dear Chris,

«How does anyone form an opinion if they are not aware of the strengths and weaknesses of other opinions?»

There are many ways to form an opinion. Considering, possibly copying, the opinions of others is just one of them, not the only.
I for one, am quite capable of forming my own opinions without looking over my shoulder to see what others think.

«how does policy evolve without a discussion of diverse opinions?»

If by "policy" you mean a set of impositions on other people without their consent, then I rather that you make no policies.

If on the other hand, you want to create policies for yourself only, then all you need to look at are your own goals. As your goals change, so will your policies evolve. Then if you also want to create policies for certain others who asked for your help in making policies for them, then you should also ask for and consider their goals, then as their goals change, so will the policies evolve. Note that goals are not necessarily based on opinions.

«How can a policy be formulated if it does not take account of a majority of opinions on many issues?»

Majority of whom (I do assume that you meant a majority of people, not of opinions)? of an arbitrary group of people (and why just people, why not animals also?) who never even ever accepted yourself or each other as part of their lives, how less so agreed for you and the others to control their lives?

Besides, even in a democracy, assuming you believe in that concept, what counts are individual choices, not opinions - nobody is asked to provide reasons on their ballot paper (and even if they did, how could you tell that these reasons reflect their true opinion, if even they have any?)!
While choices are based on some thought or another, that thought need not be an opinion.

SteeleRedux,

I do not think that environmental sustainability is achievable.

I think it is a pipe dream given our world of unbridled global consumerism, increasing population growth, increasing environmental degradation and over-exploitation of resources.

A whole industry has developed around the idea of sustainability and a lot of people are making a lot of money out of delivering very little that is sustainable in the face of the adverse issues I mentioned above.