Sustainability appears to be an intelligent philosophy. Growing up I harassed my parents to get me this or that no matter where I was or what i was doing. I believed that the more I took from the outside and used it as my own it would somehow bolster myself and make myself more powerful. I think that this is essentially the way we have been socialized to interact with the outside world. We can see examples of this on all levels of our government, tax breaks for the rich, the externalization of costs at the expense of the third world, or in the TED video Jason recommended in which politicians put waste treatment plants predominantly in our ghettos. Just as i understood with age that I couldn't have or take everything I wanted because eventually my parents resources would not be able to withstand the shock our politicians and the powers at be cannot rape and pillage the land and their fellow human beings or they will have no source of sustenance.
That was essentially a long winded rant hopefully pointing at the idea that we cannot continue to separate ourselves from our surroundings. If we take and take from our environment we as beings that are part of that environment will essentially be taking and taking from ourselves. Sustainability to me clearly means in order to live (sustain) we cannot take more than we give or we will eventually take ourselves out of existence.
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To me, sustainability is centered on relationships. We can sustain friendships and beliefs and family, so why is it so much harder to sustain the earth? The idea of sustainability really causes us to examine how we interact with everything, because everything on earth is interconnected. What we do today affects tomorrow, and it is hard to remember that when trying to enjoy, or at least get by, in the present moment. I really liked the discussion today about how there is no one, permanent definition for sustainability. It can mean so many different things in all realms of life. I do believe however, that any kind of sustainability must start with knowledge. How we will know what to sustain if we are unaware of how the world works? Not until I got to college did I even think about everything the earth provides us, and it does provide EVERYTHING. Sustainability must start with being able to see the larger picture and the different perspectives of everything on earth. When we know how things work, it causes us to take a second look at the effect that our smallest daily actions may have. Things like where our food comes from, the energy and resources it takes to finally acquire that food, the places we drive and why we drive there, the products we buy and use and then what happens to them after we have used them. Sustainability is like a study of life, more so than anthropology because it does not just involve people, but yet it tells us so much about how people think and act and the culture we live in. Sustainability is about knowledge, appreciation and responsibility for the earth that sustains all of our lives. And I really like how the idea and call for justice is so tied in with this movement.
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