what is sustainability?

     Religiously inspired efforts to work toward good and sustainable societies and communities are sometimes confused with so-called Agenda 21, otherwise known as "Sustainable Development" and/or the New World Order. Critics, secular and religious, have argued that while the theory of Sustainable Development, as promulgated by the United Nations, is in some limited ways a noble effort to address the problems of poverty and environmental crisis, the project is fatally flawed.
     The flaws are many. For one, Agenda 21 (the report developed at United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, or UNCED, Rio de Janeiro, 1992) is based on the existing globalist order of wealthy nation states and powerful multinational corporations. Rather than address issues of economic equity, Agenda 21 focuses on economic quantity.
     The so-called global development project, favored by the wealthy North, which began in the late 1940s, has worsened poverty in most Third World Nations, sending them further into debt, and hastened environmental destruction. Further, Agenda 21 takes an entirely secular approach to environmental issues, thus placing a predominant emphasis on narrowly technological solutions and economic policies.
     Questions of ultimate significance and meaning, such as the proper relation of human beings to the rest of the Creation, simply do not figure in Agenda 21. Nor do questions of equity, such as the proper relations between rich and poor. Questions raised by science, such as the limits imposed on economic development by the entropy law, are also ignored (and, in fact, denied relevance by proponents of Agenda 21, such as the former Prime Minister of Norway, Gro Harlem Brundtland).
     So viewed, Agenda 21 is more about maintaining the present global order and balance of power than about caring for Creation.
     Sustainability or sustainable living is distinguished from Agenda 21 in many ways. Briefly considered, sustainability's conceptual space exists at the convergence of questions of ultimate significance/human dignity, social justice, economic sufficiency, appropriate technology, ecological integrity, and distributed decision-making.
     Sustainability's "practical space" exists on different scales and raises questions across all the theoretical dimensions above.
     One is at the bioregional and community level. For example, consider the question of a hypothetical community's population growth at a rate of 2.5 percent per year. What would this growth "look like" in five years? twenty-five years? Who pays for this growth? Who benefits from this growth? Who decides whether this growth should occur or not? What are the biological and physical consequences of such growth? The political and economic consequences?
     Other relevant scales for sustainability issues are regional, national, and global. For example, what is the "ecological footprint" (the displaced consequences on air and water, soils and forests, people and cultures) of a community like Phoenix or Albuquerque, Flagstaff or Amarillo? Is the water these communities use being diverted from other parts of the Creation? What are the consequences for the rest of Creation of continued demographic growth and economic development?
 
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