The one-sentence truth: Growth-versus-sustainability arguments become useful only when you ask what kind of growth, which resources are being depleted, and whether environmental pressure can be reduced without collapsing living standards.
Use the Top 100 General Paper Vocabulary Words for JC1 as the core inventory and the wider JC1–JC2 vocabulary guide as the conceptual parent.
Core vocabulary
- economic growth
- productivity
- resource depletion
- externality
- decoupling
- transition
- resilience
- circular economy
- intergenerational equity
- sustainable development
Growth is not automatically material expansion
Growth can come from productivity, services, digital value and efficiency rather than simply using more raw materials. This is where decoupling matters: reducing environmental pressure relative to economic output.
Sustainability is not zero activity
Sustainability asks whether a system can continue without unacceptable depletion or damage. It does not automatically require abandoning development.
Transition costs matter
Moving away from carbon-intensive industries can protect long-term welfare while imposing short-term costs on workers, consumers and regions. A credible GP argument must evaluate both time horizons.
Before-and-after language
Weak: “Economic growth destroys the environment.”
Stronger: “Growth becomes environmentally unsustainable when increased output remains tightly coupled to resource depletion and pollution rather than productivity and cleaner technology.”
Paper 1 use
Ask whether the conflict is genuine, temporary or reducible through technology, pricing, regulation and changed consumption.
The deeper lesson
The mature GP question is not “growth or environment?” but which growth model is viable over the long term and how transition costs should be distributed.
Return to the JC1 Top 100 GP Vocabulary Hero.