Theses on
SuStainab ility
ERIC ZENCEY
a primer
The Term has become so widely used
that it is in danger of meaning nothing. It
has been applied to all manner of activities
in an e=ort to give those activities the gloss of moral
imperative, the cachet of environmental enlightenment. “Sustainable” has been used variously to mean
“politically feasible,” “economically feasible,” “not
part of a pyramid or bubble,” “socially enlightened,”
“consistent with neoconservative small-government
dogma,” “consistent with liberal principles of justice
and fairness,” “morally desirable,” and, at its most
di=use, “sensibly far-sighted.”
[ 1]
NaTure will decide what is sustainable; it always has and always will. The
reflexive invocation of the term as cover
for all manner of human acts and wants shows
that sustainability has gained wide acceptance as a
longed-for, if imperfectly understood, state of being.
[ 2]
aN ac T, process, or s Ta Te of a=airs
can be said to be economically sustainable, ecologically sustainable, or socially
sustainable. To these three some would add a
fourth: culturally sustainable.
[ 3]
NaTure is malleable and has enormous resilience, a resilience that gives
healthy ecosystems a dynamic equilibrium. But the resiliency of nature has limits and to
[ 4]
transgress them is to act unsustainably. Thus, the
most di=use usage, “sensibly far-sighted,” is the usage that contains and properly reflects the strict ecological definition of the term: a thing is ecologically
sustainable if it doesn’t destroy the environmental
preconditions for its own existence.
ecoNomic sus TaiNabili Ty describes
the point at which a less-developed economy no longer needs infusions of capital
or aid in order to generate wealth. This definition is
misleading: for many of those who use it (including
traditional economists and many economic aid
agencies), “economic sustainability” means “
sustainable within the general industrial program of
using fossil fuels to generate wealth and produce
economic growth,” a program that is, of course, not
sustainable.
[ 5]
social susTaiNabiliTy describes a
state in which a society does not contain
any dynamics or forces that would pull it
apart. Such a society has su;cient cohesion to overcome the animosities that arise from (for instance)
di=erences of race, gender, wealth, ethnicity, political or religious belief; or from di=erential access to
such boons as education, opportunity, or the nonpartisan administration of justice. Social sustainability can be achieved by strengthening social
cohesion (war is a favorite device), through indoctri-
[ 6]
