Re-evaluating Sustainability

My idea of sustainability has evolved. I don't want to say that it has changed, because I believe that part of what I said initially is true. I still believe that sustainability refers to being able to support all living things with one earth, but now I just have more to add to my definition. Sustainability is not a blanket term that can be applied like a cookie-cutter. After taking this class I believe that part of the reason the word is so impactful is because it can be altered based on different cultures, while still maintaining an implied goal to those different cultures. I think we really touched on this idea in one of our last classes, because we all got to discuss what sustainability meant to us and what the advantages and disadvantages were of having such diverse definitions.

Ok, so to add to what I started the class with, I think sustainability is putting an awareness into practice. An example would be being aware of conservation and more environmentally friendly options, but not discarding what you already have for the choice that makes you feel better. We talked about this in class, is it really any better to buy a 'green' cleaning product to replace an older one without using it entirely? Probably not. Being aware of the impact you have on the environment, the lives of living things around you, and the future environments (and consequently lives) of living things is extremely important, but it is only the first step. Taking what you have learned and what you are aware of and actually using it to change the way in which you live is what is more important. In the article "Two Meanings of Sustainability," Lester Brown, Christopher Flavin, and Sandra Postel say it best. To them, "A sustainable society is one that satisfies its needs without jeopardizing the prospects of future generations." The key word that is left out of this phrase is "want." Sustainability is not about materially satisfying our wants, but about satisfying our needs. In our consumerist society, I think we often confuse the two things. We are beginning to think that we need more and more items that we would survive quite sufficiently without.

I think that sustainability is better understood as a goal and a cycle rather than a word with one specific definition. We have so much stuff that we don't even know what to do with it all. Also, as evidenced in the "Stuff" book, we do not even pay attention to where things come from and how much effort is put forth in order to bring it to us. I think it would be truly amazing if we could overlook our wants and just focus on our needs. If we did that, maybe we would not only become sustainable, but have more time for the people around us and would be more appreciative of what we have.

I really enjoyed taking this class and all of our readings/discussions. I wish everyone the best of luck with figuring out how to make others more aware of the goals of sustainability and to put that awareness into action! :)

Remember the Idea

In my first definition of sustainability, I said it was the ability to preserve the world, the environment and the life in it. I think this is what sustainability should be, but isn’t always interpreted as. Sustainability has come to replace previous vague words like environmental, green, and organic to name a few. The problem with all of these words is the people interpreting them, the people who are going to ignore the intended connotation of the word in an effort to be labeled “green” or “sustainable” or whatever the word may be because that implies to everyone else that you are better than the competition. What I mean is that greedy people look for loopholes. For example, some juice companies will advertise their juice as “organic from concentrate” or “organic flavoring” but what do those phrases even mean anymore? I can’t imagine that organic flavoring is any better than regular flavoring.

The word “organic” no longer has very much weight because it has been interpreted and reinterpreted to fit various money-making schemes. Similarly, “green” has lost its connotative meaning just as “sustainable” will likely lose its power. Sustainable literally just means the ability to sustain. The “what” must be added. To sustain life? To sustain the environment? Those ideas are intended to be implied but they might be lost as the market tries to manipulate “sustainable” products.

In general, the vast amount of things sustainability can be applied to (like the 12+ types of sustainability named by Curran) makes using the word “sustainability” both a vice and a virtue. It’s nice because it can be applied to any situation. It’s bad because it can be misinterpreted, misleading, or manipulated. I think “sustainable” is better left as an adjective as Newton and Frefogle suggested. The reason it is so vague is because it is intended as a modifier – it requires the “what” as I said before.

I hate criticizing something without offering a solution, but frankly I don’t know what kind of word would perfectly encompass all of these new ideas about the environment. Maybe that word doesn’t exist yet. Maybe we don’t have one word to recall every subject Curran brought up, but the most important point is to remember those ideas regardless. We must hold on to the meaning – focus not on the dictionary or technical definitions, but rather on the idea, the lifestyle, and the movement behind sustainability and whatever new words we may begin to use in the future. “A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. Ideas have endurance without death.” (JFK)

What is sustainability?

I feel the more you learn about the various meaning that have been attributed to the word sustainability the more I realize that the inadequacy of any word to contain so much content. I came in with my own idea of what the word meant, but I discovered so many layers, both of ideas attached to the word and of complexity of to what I already thought I knew. I feel the basis of sustainability is understanding that everything is connected. Everything that we do affects someone or something else, both here in the present and in the future. Understanding the breadth of our actions means that we must be mindful of the things we do, trying our best to leave others at peace whenever possible. And the term others I feel also must take on a broader meaning when used in regards to sustainability. Others means the boy next door, the tree in your backyard, the lake you visited as a kid, and the people who make your clothes. While fully understanding the intricacies of our connection to the world is impossible, sustainability is a promise to seek these connections out and insure that what we do does not harm others.

"Sustainability and me"

Now that this class has ended, I definitely have even more questions about sustainability than when I originally started. Is it enough to have my own personal understanding of what this term means? Or is it necessary to take it further and have clearer, more universal guidelines about what sustainability should and should not entail? Such questions usually lead me to more questions and sometimes I long for some cold hard facts. However, I wonder if the definition is out there waiting for me to "discover" it in the first place. While I believe it is important to ground the movement for sustainability in tangible ideas and plans, I also think it is important to remember that such issues are not static. The earth is continually moving and changing – I believe that our attempts to live harmoniously together must also be ever adapting and growing. As we talked about in class, is sustainability a final destination or is it an ongoing expedition?

Issues of “sustainability” pertain to everything around me – after all, there doesn’t seem much point to anything else if I cannot live and breathe in the world that I have helped create. As Derrick Jensen says, “If you have no planet, nobody can ask questions.” So how do we humans address such a broad, all-encompassing matter? Sustainability is not just an “environmental” issue – it concerns matters from animal welfare and economics to social justice and human rights. For developed, industrialized countries such as the United States, I do not think that sustainability is about prolonging our current standards of living for as long as possible - we are going to have to find a new way to live more equitably. However, what would that look like? Imagining that future can be rather bleak and scary – I know that I have grown rather accustomed to the many luxuries that my country provides. However, as illustrated by The Story of Stuff, such amenities come at a hefty price. The richer developed world may not be paying as dearly for our actions yet, but the environment and poorer developing countries are already bearing the brunt of such choices. I do not think we have the luxury to tiptoe around these issues - we can no longer afford for issues of sustainability to be divisive or ignored.

At times, the weight and breadth of these issues can be very intimidating and confusing. However, the longer the world waits, the more nebulous our future seems to get. Our little actions certainly add up - we have to start somewhere. But I think that "sustainability" demands more from us - it requires actions that reach farther than our individual lives. Our personal changes are certainly a step in the right direction, but I don’t think it can stop there. World-wide discussion of our species' role as responsible and compassionate stewards of the Earth *is* growing – a fact that heartens and motivates me. I want to believe that the world is starting to see how sustainability is an issue that concerns us all – an aspect that I hope can give it a strong, unifying power.

In conclusion, I liked the idea of sustainability being more of a verb than a noun. Not something to mostly just talk about, but something that we do. I think that the issues we face today are some of the greatest challenges ever to our creativity as a species – how can we look past the linear way so many things are done to fashion a new, cyclical, and “sustainable” way of living?

Sustainability?

I unwittingly assumed that I would have a better understanding of the definition of sustainability after this class, but the more I know the less able I seem to be to define it. A catch-all term, sustainability is used by environmentalists, corporations, and governments to mean a variety of different things. These definitions often contradict one another, but everyone is kept happy by the word because they can use the definition which they like the most. In the Curren article, ten different types of sustainability are outlined, each with a modifying adjective that would seem to dictate the definition more so than the word it modifies.

Because it is so amorphous everyone has their own definition of sustainability, and so attempting to take into account all I’ve learned here is my best personal definition of sustainability. When I think of sustainability “reduce, reuse, recycle” still comes to mind immediately. But this is simply a way of life incorporating a mindset of sustainability. Sustainability is a much broader word, including not only a path and way of life, but also a goal. Even the goal of sustainability is somewhat amorphous. This goal is a continuous goal as one must continue the practices used to “achieve” this goal once it is reached. But I do feel like sustainability can be a goal, just one that continues to compound each time it is reached. As Zoë mentioned in her first blog, infinity is a fitting symbol when describing sustainability. Basically, to be truly sustainable, a process must be able continue infinitely. But then when describing sustainability in the world at this point, we cannot call anything truly sustainable. We would like to put all our hopes on technology, but even this has a cost. Thus, this definition of sustainability is a bit unrealistic and idealistic in practice. Yet, we do need something to aspire to and the cyclical feel of infinity is perfection. To me, the word sustainability will never include being one with the land. This is probably because I have been influenced by traditional views of sustainability and the way in which past and present governments define it. We can and should base models off of nature’s perfectly cyclical processes while trying to live more in harmony with the land, but as much as I wish sustainability could include that oneness with the land I do not feel like it does right now. That is one of the problems with the word sustainability, although to some people it does mean achieving a better state with the environment we are a part of, to most, sustainability is almost solely focused on humans and looks at the environment as a place of resources- renewable and nonrenewable. Due to this fact we may never reach the full meaning of the word sustainability because without that appreciation and connection to the Earth we will not be able to connect all the dots. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe there is hope for humanity and this beautiful Earth which we live on. But I also think it will take a lot for us to change, and I worry that if the bar is set too high people will feel as though it is unattainable and thus not worth attempting to achieve. Then we will never reach our goal of “sustainability” (however you define it).

Home

The word "sustainability" now rests with me as a quality of a closed system, independent to and dependent upon itself, which allows it to continue to exist for an infinite amount of itme. In our world, that system is planet Earth. The processes and functions of nature have been fine-tuned by time so to produce no waste, and completely recycle its self in a way that will enalbe it to continue forever, should the blaance be kept. The great efficiency of nature is evident with the study of Biomimicry. This revolves around attempting to copy the abilities and designs of organisms in nature to produce more effiicient machine--even the most recent science is coming back toward the perfecction of nature, the thing we are abusing!

In Society, many people push for sustainability and attempt practices that are "more sustainable." In reality, these people are attempting to grasp an intangible object. Sustainability's role in society has become a view where it has almost become a finish line--once it is reached people can stop running the race. In contrast to the thought of many, it is actually a state of mind that will probably be brought on when humanity is knocking at death's door. This mentality would dicates one's behaviors to things such as recycling anything used back through natural process of the Earth, while not harming the planet in any way. If humans are to reach this state, keeping the average American's lifestyle today would be impossible with the amount of waste and consumpton that goes on. One would probably even have to go to the extent of submerging them self completely into nature and "living off the land," but wouldn't it be kind of cool if everyone did that? I know I don't want to pay taxes and work all day!

If the Lifestyle Project and other student's activism projects showed me one thing about being sustainable other than it being a lifestyle, it is that in order to be more sustainable, one must also develop a more intimate relationship with your surroundings. This means going outside for natural light instead of using electrical lights indoors, or spending time with the people in your building in place of spending time with your television. Sustainability will certainly not be impossible, but will not be easy either, and will require the commitment of everyone to accept change in the sake of something bigger than themselves. When humanity cannot continue any longer and everything we rely on is gone, we will need to either form together or we will fall apart.

"Only when the last tree has been cut, the last river is polluted, and the last fish has been caught will we realize we cannot eat money." -Native American Cree proverb

Sustainability is...

hard to define. It lacks a solid meaning beyond the idea that it is about meeting our needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Furthermore, the fact that it is “an adjective dressed up as a noun” (Newton and Freyfogle) reflects the misconception of what sustainability really means. Rather than sustainability being the goal that should be reached in the future, it is the ongoing method of how to reach that goal. However, the question of what is being sustained and who is doing the sustaining still remains unclear (Newton and Freyfogle).

Sustainability needs to continue and improve its development from a local all the way up to a global perspective requiring us to have a more efficient integration between our society, environment, and economy. As individuals, we need to become more aware of our consumption and waste, especially when “14% of our food is wasted,” (Pollan) and continue doing our part as our small actions do make a difference, although it’s a fact major changes will only be achieved through policy. Unfortunately, it is our industries and economy that are failing to undertake sustainable practices given that they have the largest impact on our own ability to become sustainable individuals. With a large percentage of our food products containing corn syrup from inedible corn (King Corn), the need for 600 gallons of water to create a single hamburger patty (Ryan), and the fact that the cost of an aluminum soda can costs more than the soda inside (Ryan) emphasize the need for these changes to occur.

Sustainability is greatly being affected by our consumption patterns. Creating a culture where material items are crucial for our daily needs, we use resources from every corner of the globe and make them travel great distances. Sustainable practices not only support ideas of using local products and using them to their full potential, but ultimately in reducing the amount of stuff we buy.

If sustainability would become an integral part of every individual there would be more public awareness and support to demand better lifestyles. As we saw in our own Lifestyle Project results and those of our classmates, sustainability has the power to encourage others to be more aware of their actions and instill the desire for new goals and better habits.