Abstract
While there is no single definition of sustainability, most would agree that it implies that a system is to be maintained at a certain level, held within certain limits. Sustainability denies run-away growth, but it also precludes any substantial set backs or cuts. This sustainability path is hard to reconcile with the renewal cycle that can be observed in most living systems developing according to their natural intrinsic mechanisms. Besides, since different human dominated systems are in significantly different states and stages of development, sustaining those states assumes maintaining social disparities in perpetuity. This creates a challenge in communicating the ideas of sustainability in different regions. Systems are parts of hierarchies where systems of higher levels are made of subsystems from lower levels. Renewal in components is an important factor of adaptation and evolution. But then sustainability of a system borrows from sustainability of a supra-system and rests upon lack of sustainability in subsystems. Therefore by sustaining certain systems beyond their renewal cycle, we decrease the sustainability of larger, higher level systems. The only way to resolve this contradiction is to agree that the biosphere as a whole with humans as one of its components is the only system which sustainability we are to seek.
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Acknowledgements
My thanks are to Courtland Smith and Alexei Ghilarov for stimulating discussions and useful comments. I appreciate the support and discussions during the Workshop “Understanding Sustainable Development: Models, Data, and Policy”, Graz, 2004, organized by Heriberto Cabezas and Michael Narodoslawsky. The work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0354298. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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Voinov, A. Understanding and communicating sustainability: global versus regional perspectives. Environ Dev Sustain 10, 487–501 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-006-9076-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-006-9076-x