Most of the participants of the ecological debate pretend that the mere repetition of slogans like "sustainable development" will lead to a mor epresent future. To reach a more liveliable ecological condition, however, the global society needs to abolish its inequalities. First of all the North must be prevented to dominate the agricultural territories of the South.

A number of initiatives have been made by leading economists and ecological movements to replace the outdated measurement of national incomes. Here are introductions to five of these indicators.

The independence of the intelligentsia, the unbiasedness of experts and the neutrality of advisors are common assumptions used in everyday discourses but comprehensive research finds facts seldom supporting them. Articles in this issue of Eszmélet cast light on the fact that intellectual work is embedded in the society and politics. Science that though to be rational has an obvious failure: the proper handling of the relationship between society and nature, recognising the size of damage that present societies cause to the ecosystem and thus how unsustainable these societies are. Summarising the problems also gives a guideline for progressive environment policy actions.

Table of contents

1. James Petras : A Marxist critique of Post-Marxist intellectuals
2. Kapitány Ágnes, Kapitány Gábor : The guild
3. Krausz Tamás : From expertise to the lack of experience
4. Andor László : The Aczel-syndrome
5. Frici Milton : Economic advisors
6. Márkus Péter : The World Bank and Hungary
7. Új Európai Baloldali Fórum : Proposal for green taxes
8. Heltai László : GDP and te lack of eco-logic
9. Christoph Spehr : The eco-trap and the abolition of the North
10. Heltai László : Alternative economic indicators
11. Gille Zsuzsa : Discipline and recycling
12. James O’Connor, Victor Wallis : Ecological socialism and human needs