A definition of sustainability

What is sustainability? This question has followed me since it was asked at the beginning of class. I thought of it at the time in broad sweeping terms: balance, change, adaptability, curving, circular as opposed to linear paths, etc. My group had a very hard time defining it and I held a strong awareness of human and non-human centered thinking. I think a lot about the separation of humans and nature and how we see ourselves outside of that lens. It is true what Janine Benyus said: everything humans make is natural, because we are part of the natural world. The question is how well these things are adapted. When we make our homes out of toxic materials, are we supporting life or depleting it? And even in holding the awareness of humans as part of the natural world, it is near impossible not to look through the lens of human experience to look at how the overall environment and habitats of the world are being affected. We are affecting the world around us, and there is no way to stop that. We are intrinsically connected to nature. It’s not an issue of stopping or even reversing our effect, it’s about changing it in a way that supports life, our own and the lives of other life forms on the Earth. I still struggle with the definition of sustainability. I just looked it up in the dictionary to jumpstart my own concepts. The dictionary told me: “capable of being continued with minimal long-term effect on the environment.” Here “the environment” can again be seen as an entity disconnected from human life. But the idea is still there. So maybe….the ability to sustain life? That’s really using the word to define the word, and I can use synonyms to rewrite it, but at its simplest form, I think that is a large part of it. The Earth, as a living being, wants to support its own life. The beings that live on the Earth are some of the manifestations of that life. The rotation of the earth and its various paths through the universe (i.e. around the sun, in the galaxy), create motion, which creates weather and so on that allows life to flourish on this planet. And the climate does change, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing for the Earth. In fact, it could be a really good thing. But with the evidence that is being presented, it is bad for us. So what does sustainability mean to the human race? Is it to find the best way to keep us alive? It is an egocentric place to start, but a valid one. Keeping yourself, or your species alive seems to be at the center of all life’s focus. Other species don’t think about this, they just do it. They make decisions that support their own survival, like trees growing towards light, animals choosing where and when to look for their food, etc. But as far as we know, humans are the only animal that can reflect on this process, and potentially the only animal that can look beyond the survival of itself. We blame the decline of the environment entirely on ourselves, or we deny that we have any involvement. Both scenarios are not full. We are involved. It’s our home. And although we have had a huge effect on the progression of the Earth’s conditions, there are larger forces at work as well. The Earth does have its own cycle where it does get hotter than it is now, and much cooler as well. 90% of the planet has gone extinct before, and from the 10% remaining, new life has generated and evolved and flourished.