Sustainability – A History

The word sustainability has only become common currency over the last 25 years, but the idea goes back a lot further, as demonstrated in this wide-ranging study. Fundamentally, it presupposes that our current industrial present cannot endure indefinitely and that radical changes are needed in our relationship to nature. These symptoms are all around us in terms of throwaway consumption, population growth, environmental degradation and pollution, extinction of species, social inequality and unstable economic systems. We need to redefine the relationship between nature, the economy and society. This is not a new message, but it is becoming ever more pressing. One of the main concerns during the 17th and 18th centuries was the management of forests. As far back as 1669, Colbert issued a new decree on forest policy that revised regulations dating back to the 13th century and that lasted until the 19th century. Even in the middle of the 18th century, some people had realised that deforestation led to drier and warmer climates. Rousseau crystallised some changes in attitude in his writings.

The industrial revolution initiated processes that are still going on today, for instance in terms of pollution and greenhouse gases. The author draws on the work of Kirkpatrick Sale to delineate the essential patterns of development. Interestingly, John Stuart Mill was among the first to advocate a steady state economy in which human development would continue. The book moves on to the growth of the environmental movement in the 1960s and 70s and the translation of concepts into action, for instance in the work of EF Schumacher. He includes an interesting chronology from 1969 onwards. Here, the book is primarily US-centric, so there is no mention of Teddy Goldsmith and Satish Kumar. The Gaia Hypothesis is likewise absent, as is the work of David Orr and Fritjof Capra on ecoliteracy. However, as the author observes, we may not live in a sustainable age but we are living in an age of sustainability and we now have the tools and indicators to create a sustainable society, which he spells out in terms of 10 challenges that form our agenda for the future. The historical background makes this an important contribution to the continuing debate.