In the environmental space it’s very common for us to be nostalgic for a past that we imagine to be sustainable.
We see our lack of sustainability as a modern problem.
Unfortunately there is no sustainable world to rewind back to.
🧵👇
We see our lack of sustainability as a modern problem.
Unfortunately there is no sustainable world to rewind back to.
🧵👇
This is because we forget that there are two halves to the sustainability definition:
“Meet the needs of the present”
“without sacrificing the needs of future generations”
We focus a lot on the 2nd half & forget the 1st.
1/
“Meet the needs of the present”
“without sacrificing the needs of future generations”
We focus a lot on the 2nd half & forget the 1st.
1/
Even if we pretend that humanity’s impact on the environment used to be small (it didn’t, at least on a per capita basis)…
We have always failed to meet the needs of the present generation.
2/
We have always failed to meet the needs of the present generation.
2/
For most of human history, poverty was the default.
One-quarter of babies died in their first year. Half didn’t make it to adolescence.
Yes, this was likely also true of hunter-gatherers.
@MaxCRoser wrote about this here: ourworldindata.org/child-mortalit…
3/
One-quarter of babies died in their first year. Half didn’t make it to adolescence.
Yes, this was likely also true of hunter-gatherers.
@MaxCRoser wrote about this here: ourworldindata.org/child-mortalit…
3/
@MaxCRoser The world we are nostalgic for was a brutal and hard one. We don't want to go back there.
It definitely did not meet the definition of sustainability.
If we want to achieve sustainability we need to spend more time looking forward, less time looking back.
/end
It definitely did not meet the definition of sustainability.
If we want to achieve sustainability we need to spend more time looking forward, less time looking back.
/end
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