The ladder of sustainable development and its steps Baker proposed the ladder of sustainable development (sustainable development ladder) in 1997 in order to make a clear categorization of the great variety of approaches to development sustainable (Pelenc et al, 2015). This scale uses several steps to define attitudes towards nature from an anthropocentric to an ecocentric point of view. In total, there are four steps on the sustainable development ladder: pollution control, weak sustainable development, strong sustainable development and ideal model of sustainable development (Baker et al, 2016). In this order, pollution control is on the lowest rung of the scale (on the more anthropocentric side) and the ideal model is on the highest rung of the scale (on the more ecocentric side). These rungs of the ladder not only organize the different approaches to promoting sustainable development, but also organize the type of policy associated with these different approaches (Baker et al, 2016). Furthermore, the scale shows the connections and differences between different SD approaches. In the next paragraphs, the different steps of the SD ladder and the corresponding philosophies will be discussed. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay First of all; on the more anthropocentric side of the scale is the pollution control approach. Central to this approach is the view that environmental protection is important, but that economic growth remains the highest priority in all cases (Baker et al, 2016). Therefore, according to this approach, environmental protection does not place limits on economic growth (Baker et al, 2016). This absence of limits to economic growth results in the exploitation of natural resources without keeping an eye on natural boundaries, which in turn will lead to environmental deterioration (Baker et al, 2016). However, this does not have to be a big problem according to the pollution control approach, since maintaining or increasing the total amount of value for the benefit of future generations is considered the most important issue (Neumayer, 2012). From this point of view it does not matter whether the current generation uses its own resources, as long as there is enough technology to compensate (Solow, 1993). This way of treating nature shows one of the most important normative principles of the first rung of the ladder, namely that nature has only instrumental value and no intrinsic value (Baker et al, 2016). Ahead on the ladder is the concept of weak sustainable development. According to the weak sustainable development approach, natural capital can be preserved by attributing an economic value to natural resources and processes (Baker et al, 2016). In this way of thinking natural resources can be exploited, but only if the benefits from exploiting this natural resource outweigh the environmental loss (Baker et al, 2016). The weak SD approach allows this replacement of environmental capital with human capital since, in this approach, human capital is believed not only to have the capacity to replace environmental capital, but also to generate the same types of well-being (Pelenc et al. al, 2015). This nature approach appears to take environmental degradation more seriously than the pollution control approach (Kirkpatrick, 2015). However, although policies promoting the concept of weak SD take into account the environmental costs of economic growth, economic growth remains the main objective. highest priority (Pelenc et al, 2015). The third rung of the ladder is strong sustainable development. One of,.