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Do I Value "Sustainability"?

May 15, 2005 09:23 AM

I have really felt lost recently, as I think about my future plans, what I can, should, and want to do. Everything seemed so clear until this past two months, when I started to realize that I may not really be on-board with "sustainability". I wrote before that I have serious doubts that such a thing is even possible, and that I was disturbed by the prevailing idea that a sustainable world is some kind of utopia, where all the damage we have done until now is somehow undone.

Not "believing" seemed like a barrier if I were to try to find some work related to sustainable development when I graduate, but I still rationed that I don't have to believe it is possible in order to work toward it.

My latest barrier, however, might be a little harder to overcome... Recently, I have gotten around to asking myself the obvious question, the one we should all have been required to answer in our application essay: Is "sustainability" an attractive goal? Is it even necessarily a "good" thing?

In recent weeks I have found myself realizing that I don't know if it is good. For the most part, when I think of what would be needed to sustain human society*, I don't see it as totally fitting with my values or image of a desirable way of life. For example, "Sustainability" can be achieved by radically reducing human population, and then either enforcing a strict birth-control policy, or infanticide (it worked in the old days).

Now, you will be comforted to know that I do agree with and see value and logic in living within the physical limits of our system. The only difference is that I value "not screwing up the world for ourselves and future generations" and "making the world better, not worse", rather than "sustaining the world forever". While living according to basic rules of thermodynamics may lead to sustaining human society, it is not my reason for doing so. So how can I work in "sustainable development" when sustainability is not even my goal?

This is what I have been thinking recently, until tonight. I was walking home from a birthday party, reflecting on the evenings table talk which touched on this topic. I may have found a little comfort in that my own values and goals, which I thought were different from, but may lead to sustaining human society, are perhaps just another way of saying "sustainability". Allow me to think this through out loud... this is just a rough draft of my thoughts. Let me know if it makes any sense.

Somehow, in my mind, the term "sustainability" when expressed as a goal, has gradually evolved into meaning "sustain human society". I realized tonight that these are two very different goals, that "sustainability" is just a prerequisite for sustaining human society, but it is not a guarantee. It merely means that the earth is "able" to sustain humans. In that sense, sustainability is very close to my goal of "don't screw it up or make it worse for future generations".

In effect, sustainability means that I should not detract from their ability to choose to screw it up for themselves. It means that I do not dictate how they live. I do not dictate what they must value. I do not dictate their morals or ethics. If they don't feel any moral obligation to preserve the ability for their future generations to exist, that is their prerogative. I don't agree with it, but in the end, my own morals and ethics are my own. I can try to convince them that they should value something more than satisfying their own desire to consume, but I have not right to "force" them to do so.

This of course is the main problem I have today, in that I do feel that it is unethical to leave a shit-hole for my kids, grandkids, and great grandkids, but there is no empirical case to be made for this. There is no case for "sustainability". As clear as the laws of thermodynamics are, and that our ecosystem has basic limits, and that we can not continue to push toward those limits, this means nothing unless the people living today see more value in preserving the "ability" to sustain future generations than they do in getting cheap crap and cheap airfare, and tomatoes in the winter, and the freedom to live an hour's drive from work, and whatever else we value that flies in the face of the scientific laws and principles that govern our world.

This led to a short time of grappling with the idea that it is almost as if society has now collectively decided "Ok, this is the end. There is no reason to continue. It's no longer worth it." If this is the collective will, who am I to argue, and to say that my values are more important than anyone else's? Of course, it's obvious that it is not the collective will of humanity that has decided to call it quits. It is only a small portion. Unfortunately, it's the small portion of which I live amongst.

So, let me see if I can recap what I just rambled on about:

My goal is not to "sustain" humanity. My goal is to leave the world in a state that future generations can decide for themselves if they see value in leaving a healthy world for their future generations. And if possible, that that world is somehow improved.
I now realize that this is what "sustainability" means.
While the scientific laws and principles that define "sustainability" are quite black and white, the case for the value of "sustainability" is a moral and ethical call.
It appears that I may be living in the time when a significant portion of humanity has decided that it is no longer worth leaving a healthy earth to future generations.
that's a sad thought

Bahhh! it is still an incomplete thought, full of holes. I will still be thinking about this... maybe I will revisit it on the blog. Does any of it make any sense as is? Of course it doesn't even touch on the fact that it seems to make most sense to see "sustainability" of future generations as secondary to stopping the suffering of people today, but that when tackling poverty today, we should do it in a way that does not compromise the future generations ability to live poverty free as well (I am speaking of more than just economic poverty... the poverty that exists when any of our needs are not satisfied).

*when I talk about sustainability I mean human society, since I do not believe it is possible for us to completely destroy all life on earth