Discuss: Theses on Sustainability

Wonderful. It’s amazing what a profound impact the “more is more” mantra has within our society - terrifying even. And a reorientation of incentives beneath the umbrella of that mantra probably won’t do us much good - a different standard, a different system, one that measures human well being in units other than money, one that places importance on human creativity and flourishing, human independence, is certainly needed.

My question; how do we create this sustainable economy with 6 (and eventually more) billion people on the planet? We have obviously grown beyond earth’s carrying capacity (or will shortly). How can you provide a fair standard of living for 6bil without depleting the ability for future generations to inhabit the planet (not to mention healthfully, fairly, and peacefully)?

I’ve been reading Paul Shepard recently, and he might add that, yes, culturally, we can’t go back to hunter-gatherer days, but on the other hand neither have we completely left behind the bodies and minds of the people of that period. So perhaps dreaming up a “sustainable” economics—even with 6 billion people—should start with taking a critical look at what “quality of life” really means in terms of who we are evolutionarily, as well as historically and culturally.

Nothing can be sustained, save compassion. All else is mutable in the great Tao!

It helps to clarify what is happening by considering what the systems we have installed in our civilization do. As pointed out in the article, they irreversibly use up stocks of limited natural resources and produce irrevocable wastes.

What is done with these natural resources is another issue, covered in some detail in the article.

The bottom line is simply that civilization’s devastation of its life support system is not sustainable no matter what is done with the natural wealth it has used.

Readers might be interested in my small experiment of living sustainably in rural India. One each of us live in a sustainable or energy efficient way then there is enough energy available for the mankind to live a decent and holistic life.

Excellent essay.

With regrad to theme 8, it´s interesting to note that soil carbon (about 58% of soil organic matter)is by itself generally comprised of pools of different age (or “residence times”). A normally quite large pool is constituted by very old organic material that resists degradation—“antique, stored solar energy”. Other so-called labile pools indeed store “current solar income”, which can quickly destroyed/decomposed by agricultural and other uses, but may also be restored to most of their orignal extent by proper and careful management.

Sustainability might be just a “concept” in Orion Magazine, but for every other living creature it is the daily life. When both Greedy and Green intellectuals step down from the false ego view of being Lord Masters of the Universe, accept the effort it takes for Existence to happen for our species, cherish each breath given; then problems will become solutions. Dinosaurs were dominant for millions of years, we are only a few thousand years old. I have invested big time in the future, I have grand-children. We owe it to get off the high horse and do the right things needed. There are only 7 billion of us really. Recognition of the genius level in all of Life is needed. Stop telling every other species where they belong according to us. That is not Green. We are like the story of the Lion who gets up every day, goes over to each of the other animals, pins them down to the ground (or places a transmitter on their backs)and asks, ” Who’s the toughest in the jungle?” All the little animals look up to the Lion and say, ” You are “! One day the Lion sees the elephant, grabs him by the leg and squeezes and asks, ” Who’s the toughest in the jungle? ” The elephant takes his trunk and wraps it around the Lion, then proceeds to smash him back and forth on the ground until the Lion is very hurt and wobbly. When the Lion is finally put back down on his own feet he looks up at the elephant and says ” If you didn’t know the answer, you didn’t have to get so sore about it”! Understanding… Will we ever learn how precious this life Really Is?

A commentary on the vapidity of the phrase “sustainability” that is as vapid as the phrase itself?

No, Zencey’s nonsense koans are worse. “We must harness the power of the markets to do good.” Have you not paid the slightest attention to what this laissez faire, pro-corporate supersystem has wrought? With all the offensive greenwashing spilling from the dominant transational corporations, we have to hear such bilge from an Orion sage?

The globe desperately needs environmental and economic regulation to restrain the extractive impulse of the neoliberal global economic system.
Of course, we have evolved no such means of supervisory control upon our rich and obtuse, so we’ll just enjoy the libertarian bird-chirping of master greenwashers like Amory Lovins and this latest contender.