The Brundtland Commission came out with the sustainable development theory to go beyond business as usual in social and environmental terms in 1987 assuming that traditional market dynamics and population dynamics are independent variable so the over-population problem present then had nothing to do with negative traditional market dynamics accumulated since 1776.

Imagine now that the Brundtland commission had linked irresponsible traditional market performance since 1776 with the coming of the overpopulation problem they had in front of them in 1987, then they would have seen only one root cause as market dynamics and population dynamics would not be independent variables which would had affected their sustainable development theory and sustainable development policy toolbox.

And this raises the question, How many root causes to environmental problems are present when market dynamics and population dynamics are taken as independent variables as the Brundtland Commission did in 1987? What is the problem, policy and development wise, with this line of independent variable thinking?

What do you think? How many root causes? Which are the problems with this line of thinking?