Sustainability Paradigm Shift

7/28/2019 Sustainability Paradigm Shift

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John Connolly 1

CAS 137H

Benjamin Henderson

10-30-12

Sustainability

I was fourteen years old when I was first introduced to the concept of

sustainability. I was listening to Al Gore give his Nobel Lecture after winning the

Peace Prize in 2007 for his work advocating awareness for Global Warming. My

introduction occurred so subtly that it took years to realize that the beginning of my

trip down the path of sustainability began with Gore’s long winded, but impressive

speech. I remember listening to him and thinking about how my actions were

affecting Global Warming, but what I didn’t realize was that he was speaking to a

deeper level by saying that if we didn’t begin to practice sustainability, global

warming would be only one of the many consequences of our negligence. A slow

increase in sustainability awareness has been occurring with society across the last

few decades, however the largest observed societal shift has been toward the end of

this time period (2000 – present). It is during this time that we have seen the

largest change in technology, the economy, our personal lives and even some of our

core values all centered around the need for a sustainable future.

What Is Sustainability?

The Oxford English Dictionary states that sustainability is “The degree to

which a process or enterprise is able to be maintained or continued while avoiding

the long-term depletion of natural resources” (Sustainability). However there is

much more to sustainability than simply maintaining natural resources.

This was one of the problems that the United Nations’ World Commission on



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Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission) combatted as they

developed their guidelines toward more specific sustainability definitions and goals.

They needed to discover how sustainability could be described so that it could be

understood and practiced in all parts of the world. After weeks of consultation they

concluded their meetings with the publication of the 383-page report entitled Our

Common Future (Brundtland Report) (1987), which described sustainable

development as “development that meets the needs of the present without

compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their own needs,” (Our

Common Future).

If we analyze these definitions of sustainability they begin to sound very

similar to the late 19th century American forester Gifford Pinchot’s description of

conservation. Gifford said that “ conservation emphasizes using natural resources

wisely, not depleting nonrenewable resources, ensuring that all American men

received a fair share of the distribution of benefits, and that consideration be given

to the needs of their descendants” (McManus). With this description of

conservation we can see that sustainability and conservation are linked throughout

time, which allows for the location of the origin of sustainability and the exploration

of sustainability history.

Beginning of Sustainability

One of the first recorded uses of the word conservation (in the context of

sustainability) is in John Stow’s Annales: Chronical of England (1580)

(Conservation). He writes “It was ordained by Parliament, the Maior of London to



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have conservation of the river of Thamis, from the bridge of Stanes, unto the Waters

of Yendale, and Medway” (Stow). We see the term used again a few hundred years

later as President Theodore Roosevelt undertakes an enormous effort to conserve

massive amounts of land across the United States. He writes “Our duty to the whole,

including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day

minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations through a

democratic spirit of conservation and preservation” (Roosevelt)

From Roosevelt’s era (1900s) to the 1970s, conservation was the term used

to describe sustainability. However, that all changed when the World Conservation

Strategy (WCS) was put into place. The WCS linked the terms conservation and

sustainability for the first time and brought the supporters of conservation to

sustainability (World Conservation Strategy). After seventeen years of unsuccessful

sustainability awareness, the Brundtland commission published Our Common

Future and set up a chain of events that would lead directly to today’s societal shift.

The Years Prior to Societal Shift

The most notable events that occurred in the years leading up to the Societal

Shift were the Conferences in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, New York City in 1997, and

Johannesburg in 2002.

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED)

in Rio de Janeiro (which later became known as the Earth Summit) was a five year

check up meeting on the completion of the Brundtland commission. It was at this

meeting that the United Nations measured adequate success and began the process

of introducing more funding to turn ideas into action.



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The two subsequent meetings in New York and Johannesburg continued to

determine and implement actions which would support the sustainability

movement. It was decided during the last meeting in Johannesburg that the

following decade, beginning in 2005, would be considered the Decade of Education

for Sustainable Development, and the development and societal shift that have so

far occurred during this time show the name is extremely accurate. (Dunavan)

Causes of the Societal Shift

The recent changes in our world are the largest causes of the current shift in

sustainability. The realization that the irregular climate patterns we are experiencing

could be caused by our destruction of the environment is forcing us to change.

Everyday, facts about how many trees are being cut down, how large your carbon

footprint is, and how much ozone is in the air are being thrown at the typical human

being. We see this and conclude that we need to change and become more sustainable

or face the threat of permanently altering our climate.

The other change is the realization that all material things on this Earth will

eventually run out. Our greedy consumption of oil and non-renewable resources has

become an addiction and we are beginning to see that there is not an infinite amount to

secure our future. Because of this we are learning to find more sustainable solutions to

these energy and non-renewable resource problems before time runs out.

The overall cause of the shift, however, is that the world is feeling guilty. We

have finally come to the conclusion that we have been given a large responsibility and



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we haven’t taken care of it. We have mishandled it, which has created a situation that

could end in catastrophe. But we understand now, and our feeling of guilt has changed

into a sense of renewed responsibility. Not a responsibility for the environment, but for

our actions that have put us here. We have decided that we will work as hard as we can

to fix the mistakes we have made in order to be more adequately prepared to handle

the maintenance of this world.

Effects of the Societal Shift

Technological Advances: Major advances in almost every field of sustainable

technology have been recorded since 2005. This list includes energy efficiency,

biofuels, hybrid electric vehicles, recycling, and renewable resources. (Dunavan)

Economic Changes: Beginning in the late 1980s and becoming more

prominent in the 1990s was a trend for companies to engage in “Social

Responsibility.” Social Responsibility is the recognition that a sustainable economy

must respect the capacity of the ecosystem on which it depends both for material

resources and recycling of waste materials. Not only has this been shown to

improve the sustainability of companies, but it also has affected marketing

campaigns of different companies who are now advertising their sustainability as a

new way of attracting potential customers.

Personal Impact : Home life has changed as well. There are resources

everywhere that are overflowing with information, just waiting to be used by the

world. Phrases like “carbon f ootprint ”, “carbon neutral”, and “sustainable” have

become a buzz-words in communities and the effect of these phrases has caught on.



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Areas are trying to promote their new levels of sustainability and these promotions

are beginning to have significant impacts on the world at large.

The largest effect is general awareness and a new sense of responsibility

toward the environment and the future generations of the world. It is almost

impossible to find someone who doesn’t know about global warming. Whether they

believe it to be true or not, they have some sense that they need to do as much as

they can to protect the environment. It is this effect that will inspire the world to

continue shifting their ideas and values to help clean up the earth and eventually

provide a healthy planet for the generations to come.



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Word Cited

"Conservation, n.". OED Online. September 2012. Oxford University Press. 25 October 2012 <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/39564?redirectedFrom=Conservation>.

Dunavan, Sandra L. "Sustainability." Climate Change: In Context . Ed. Brenda WilmothLerner and K. Lee Lerner. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2008. 828-831. In Context Series. Gale

Virtual Reference Library. Web. 24 Oct. 2012.

McManus, Phil. "Sustainability." Encyclopedia of Global Warming and Climate Change.Ed. S. George Philander. Vol. 3. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2008. 939-941.

Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 24 Oct. 2012.

Our common future. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. Print.

Roosevelt, Theodore. A book-lover's holidays in the open,. New York: C. Scribner's Sons,1916. Print.

Stow, John. The annales of England. Imprinted at London: [By Peter Short, FelixKingston, and George Eld] for George Bishop, and Thomas Adams, 1605. Print.

"Sustainability, n.". OED Online. September 2012. Oxford University Press. 24 October

2012 <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/299890>.

World conservation strategy: living resource conservation for sustainable development .

Gland, Switzerland: IUCN, 1980. Print.

Sustainability Paradigm Shift

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