Sustainability or sustain-ability

That’s the drawback of things that are so important – it will gain much prominence that sometimes there arises the danger that the original meaning becomes diluted or forgotten altogether.  A number of terms emerged in the last two decades that have become bywords in our daily lives now.  The most common nowadays is the word “sustainability.”  Others in the list includes the descriptive “green” (which doesn’t refer to the color but uses it), and the prefix “eco” which is affixed to almost any word to suggest their environmental leanings.

The problem with sustainability, as a word, is that its root word, “sustain” can mean a lot of many things.  Wikipedia suggests “maintain”, “support”, or “endure,” among more than 10 different meanings.  So if it can be maintained, it is sustainable, right?  If it can be supported (eternally), or if it can endure forever, it will be, too, right?  It is true these meanings can be linked to sustainability as officially defined in environmental or ecological terms, but sometimes we become so localized and time-bound that we miss the point.

Officially, the definition of “sustainability” in relation to ..., I’m sorry, forgive the repetition, “sustainable development,” has been established on March 20, 1987, by the Brundtland Commission of the United Nations , as “... the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”  It has nothing to do with an activity, or a project or program proposed or done now, which can be maintained, supported, or will endure.  Sustainability, defined thus, talks about generations, two sets in fact – the present and the future - ... generations of the human race.

It’s important to note that this definition was set by the United Nations.  Sustainability covers the whole earth, and it affects the entire human race.  Morbid as it may sound, the issues of sustainability actually involves the continued existence, or extinction, of man on earth.  Of course, to those of us who fully believe in God and His determinative will, it will be He who is the final judge of that, but God more often than not, works along natural phenomena and consequences, because it is His creation in the first place.  And the last time I read the Bible, His directive for man to be the “custodian” of creation is still valid.  And so we are still accountable for what will happen hundreds or thousands of years from now.

Mentioning the hundreds and thousands of years as a possible timeline brings us to the added problem of accountability among generations.  I often hear in the course of making major decisions spanning beyond our lifetime, the words, “... but we will be long dead by that time so why worry.”  Oftentimes we hear the argument that the present generation has enough problems as it is – let the future generation take care of itself.  Sustainability means that we are accountable to the future generations.

In basic terms, it is not enough that a goal, or an endeavour, or an action can be done continually or can sustain itself.  The bottom line is asking the question whether these can continue to support, or deplete the resources for future generation.  Many of the earth resources are finite, mineral and petroleum resources the main ones.  Someday, all the deposits will be used up.  But both our daily and per capita consumption of these is increasing.  The other words often used are “conservation” and the term “renewable.”  But we have to make some had decisions on that which are “non-renewable.”

The other aspect which makes or breaks man’s continued existence is climate change and global warming – directly connected to resource use.  The choice of transportation, and whether we turn off lights when not in use, matters, but seldom thought about.  What percentage of households do composting? Or is it simply a subject matter in elementary school?  So many questions ... so little answers ...  (To be continued...)