What is sustainability...and what does it have to do with me?

Gads...where to start.

"Sustainable" the word or root is used almost everywhere nowadays. It is the buzz word for the first decade of the 21st century.

Why is maybe a better question? Why aren't we flying around in Jetson cars and have personal nuclear reactors at our house.

One reason...technology has limits. And so does Planet Earth. She (I affectionally like to refer to our GAIA as a 'she') can only support so much life and harvesting. We are gifted with an amazing allotment of solar energy every day and we fail to harvest most of it...chosing to use ancient allotments INSTEAD because it is easy(up until now).

But land use and population growth have finite limits, and it is highly likely we are very near them at the moment. Sure you can argue that maybe the planet can handle another 3 billion, but that, at our current rates of growth, is only 15-20 years away.

We need to understand what 'SUSTAINABLE' really means. Shock and HORROR time...it means 'STEADY-STATE' it means we can do it forever (as in...'it is sustainable'). Therefore, it must be STEADY-STATE. That means we achieve a population, and land use, a food production paradigm and NOT CHANGE IT or increase it. (decreases notwithstanding)

But HOW? That is the question that needs to be pondered...EACH and EVERY time you see the word.

You cannot have SUSTAINABLE GROWTH...it is mathematically impossible!

So, if you want to be sustainable - think about the steady-state of your life. Can you cease to consume, want, get more? Can you make do with what you used yesterday?

Not easy...but required at least for your children. So maybe think of them instead, I'm 39 and I have had a good life, will they if we don't look forward to the future?