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Sustainability (MIT Press Essential Knowledge series)
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Review
This volume in the 'MIT Press Essential Knowledge' series encompasses a tremendous amount of information on a complex topic in a relatively small space.―Choice
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About the Author
Kent E. Portney is Professor and Senior Fellow in the Institute for Science, Technology, and Public Policy at Texas A&M University. He is the author of Taking Sustainable Cities Seriously (MIT Press).
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Product details
Series: MIT Press Essential Knowledge series
Paperback: 248 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press; 1 edition (October 9, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0262528509
ISBN-13: 978-0262528504
Product Dimensions:
5 x 0.6 x 7 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.5 out of 5 stars
6 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#481,130 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
This is a very useful introduction to sustainability, but one that's a bit unusual. Ever since the term caught on as a concept in the late 1980s -- according to Google's Ngram tool, by 1990 it was 10 times more frequent in English than it had been in 1980; by 2008 it was a 70x multiple -- it's been said to rest on "three E's": environment, economy and equity. Typical introductions tend to emphasize one or another of that triad in some depth, especially the first. While the first chapter of this book does give a bird's-eye view of the three E's, the subsequent chapters head off in a different direction: politics and governance, especially though not exclusively from a US perspective. For example, Chapter 2 describes the proposed and enacted laws in several US states that *ban* the pursuit of sustainability-based objectives. (All of the bills and statutes seem to have roots with the Koch Brothers.) Other chapters discuss the relative roles of private enterprise and various levels of government in pursuing sustainability, and the special attention the concept has received from cities.Personally, I wish more space had been given to some of the equity aspects especially: e.g., efforts to make cities more sustainable often lead to gentrification of parts of the central city, but this isn't discussed. (See, e.g., the 2003 volume edited by J. Agyeman & al., Just Sustainabilities: Development in an Unequal World.) Also, even a brief overview like this could have been a little more serious about the economics aspects. The distinction between weak and strong sustainability is never mentioned, despite its importance for policy. And I was surprised to see Robert Solow, the founding father of weak sustainability, and Herman Daly, an early proponent of ecological economics, cited jointly for the notion "that there is a need to take the biophysical environment and ecosystem services into account when assessing and measuring economic growth" (@113). This belies the fact that Daly and Solow are quite far apart on how seriously they take this view, as Daly went to some pains to point out in his 1999 essay, "How long can the neoclasssical economists ignore the contributions of Georgescu-Roegen?" (reprinted in Ecological Economics and Sustainable Development: Selected Essays of Herman Daly).The book includes a glossary (minus any definition for the title concept per se), a good list of references and, as is becoming customary in academic press books, a mediocre index. The author's style is generally readable, but occasionally he falls back on lists and catalogues, such as a long list of urban sustainability measures stuffed into a sentence more than a page long (@177-178). But these flaws are relatively minor. Even if you've read other books on sustainability, this one provides a complementary and useful perspective.
Good book as astarting document on sustainability.
Very good book. Clearly written.
Humans in the era of ever-expanding technology seem capable of just about anything. Of course no truly objective arbiter yet exists to tell us otherwise, so we simply continue to congratulate ourselves as being "the most intelligent creatures on Earth." No one has argued with us, but who would? Guinea Pigs? Bacteria? Despite this, some people have recently added "self-destruction" to that growing list of human capabilities. The first major epiphany of this new ability occurred following the invention and use of nuclear weapons. We demonstrated to ourselves that we not only could and would create such violently destructive things, but that we would also use them against each other. Prior to this, we may have doubted our ability to inflict potentially species-ending damage on ourselves, but we can doubt that no longer. Only the fact that "it hasn't happened yet" seems to prolong optimism. As the twentieth century continued following World War II, other observations and data began to seep into the consciousness of a few, namely, that the slow destruction of the human habitat may already have progressed to a critical and dangerous level. Early on, some of these ideas derived from the work of Thomas Malthus, who presented, at least on the surface, a very reasonable argument about the limited carrying capacity of the Earth. Though the argument does appear highly cogent, many believe in it the same way that people believe in "intelligent" life existing elsewhere in the universe. Basically, so the feeling goes, "it just has to be true!" No direct evidence exists for either Malthus' collapse or for extra-terrestrial intelligence, but both seem to carry a certain intuitive and creeping inevitability. Once again, critics can counter that "it hasn't happened yet." Others can point out that a system stretched beyond capacity will break and we don't want to wait for it to actually happen to find out. Which begs the question "just what is the Earth's capacity?" and the discursive cycle perpetuates itself. Anyone can obviously argue convincingly against something that hasn't happened and suspend evasive action accordingly due to lack of evidence. But how does anyone know the signs that humanity has gone too far? How can we detect an impending ecological collapse? In other words, how do we know that we're in the process of potentially destroying ourselves?The small book "Sustainability" in the MIT Essential Knowledge Series dissects some of these questions and frames them in a more sober analytic context. For humanity to last in the long run, it argues, it must choose a sustainable path, arguably unlike the one we now follow. But what does "sustainability" even mean? And sustainability of what? The book unpacks the deceptively simple questions and exposes some of the true complexities underlying this topic. It also points out the relative unfamiliarity of these inquiries, as these puzzling quandaries have arisen only very recently in human history. One definition of "sustainability" the book favors comes from the 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development stating that it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Building on that, the book does not ignore the glaring issues of economic development and the people who argue and believe that ecological "fixes" could have devastating impacts on the economy and the material well-being of humanity. "Economy" even appears in the book's foundational triumvirate of sustainability, or "the 3 E's," namely, "Economy," "Equity" and "Environment." These elements overlap and intersect and true sustainability needs to account for all of them. In response to the question "what should be sustained?" six categories appear: biological resource use, agriculture, energy, society, economy and development. To contrast ideas of "carrying capacity," or the point beyond which collapse would occur, the book claims that neo-classical economics doesn't believe that depletion of natural resources would undermine economic growth all by itself. This also introduces the recent and often fierce social and political tensions behind the creation of a sustainable world. Since human behavior at large appears unsustainable, especially in the long term, how do we avoid "the tragedy of the commons?" Some point to technology, but the book argues that technology promotes rather than avoids environmental degradation, not to mention that an overconfidence in the panacea of technology may lead to a precarious complacency. Concerning GDP and economic growth, some find the concept flawed in that it focuses exclusively on economic benchmarks and does not include environmental impacts. As such, a highly polluted, and nearly unlivable, world could still manifest a healthy GDP. Growth in general remains a sticky problem as growth, at least in its current form, usually increases consumption and resource use. Along these lines, many countries, particularly developing ones, resent the idea that they should slow growth in the name of environmental concerns. After all, why should they hold back when numerous developed countries pollute with impunity while enjoying unparalleled prosperity? Difficult questions abound and, at least in the United States, economic concerns seem to have largely won out over ecological ones.The book expands on these high-level questions in subsequent sections, each dedicated to a specific domain of sustainability. One deals with controversy, especially over the United Nation's "Agenda 21." Though the details of this non-binding voluntary statement remain a little murky within the book, the reactions to it make it clear that some in the United States see it as a direct threat to freedom, economic growth and American power. Some have even deemed it socialistic or communistic and then applied these very political ideologies to sustainability itself. Add to that the debate over the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change) and its claim that climate change arises from human activity. Some dismiss this as a hoax, but the book suggests that "climate deniers" actually disagree with the implied social and political changes rather than with the scientific claims. A number of states even proposed or passed anti-Agenda 21 legislation, allegedly brought forward by Libertarian or Tea Party advocates. Reaching any consensus or compromise on these polarizing issues anytime soon seems unlikely. Another section discusses consumption, the "link between economic development and environmental degradation," especially when supported by fossil fuels, a known limited resource. Does the answer lie in alternate energy sources or less consumption? Or both? The future of sustainable water and agriculture has begun to appear bleak, driven largely by rising populations. Sustainability also reaches into the private sector and corporations seem to embrace sustainability more than governments do for mostly economic reasons. "The Green Economy" has also helped drive demand for environmentally friendly goods. But do such companies mean what they say or do they "greenwash" products simply to increase demand? Such claims remain tricky to prove beyond suspicion. Regardless, many organizations that support sustainable business have emerged globally, but doubt lingers about whether the profit-hungry corporate sector can really create a sustainable economy. Governments, especially the United States and China, seem to have lost interest in legislating sustainability. Following the landmark laws from the 1970s, such as the Clean Water and Clear Air Acts, the ambition for similar legislation seems to have dragged to a halt. Still, the book claims that no research exists to evaluate the effectiveness of sustainability policies, particularly voluntary programs. The political will to mandate sustainability currently seems non-existent. In reaction, some cities have taken initiative on environmental issues, but some studies show that they don't often emphasize sustainability. Still, programs such as car sharing, bike sharing, accessible public transportation and green architecture show promise. But what about social justice or the "equality" aspect of the "three E's?" According to additional studies, equity considerations typically get left behind. An ecologically sound but unfair world doesn't seem like a good outcome.A final chapter titled "Sustainability and the Future" closes the book with a big desperate question mark. In so many words, it asks how humanity will break the current political and social stalemate over environmental concerns. Science tells us that our current path is not sustainable, but distrust of science and scientists has increased. Gone apparently are the days when acid rain resulted in sulfur regulation and ozone depletion led to CFC regulation. CO2 has not inspired similar reactions, despite much outcry, likely because of its wide reaching economic implications or possibly because of the "it hasn't happened yet" syndrome. But how do we know that it hasn't happened yet? Many correlate the increasing number of extreme weather events with climate change, but only some in the wider public seem convinced or concerned. Not only that, times have changed drastically since this book's publication in 2015 and US governmental policy has become exceedingly unfriendly to environmental issues. Though the book definitely stands on the side of environmental action it doesn't really propose solutions, it more paints a picture of a gridlocked snapshot in time. Right now, some people cry impending disaster while others cry laughable hoax. At the same time, a backlash against science seems in full force, which seems strange for a modern world founded on and so utterly dependent on science. What happened? The book doesn't offer any answers, but it does offer a decent picture of the world's current predicament. So are we destroying ourselves? The final passages of the book exude a frustrated resignation that many people probably feel today. In the end, all it can really do is quote a 1982 pop song: "Only Time will Tell." Indeed.
I've read a few of the books in this MIT Press series and they have all impressed me so far. Sustainability contains a brief overview of 'sustainability' which can be here outlined as 'approaches to environmental solvency' because the book covers a wide range of angles on the topic of sustainability: its scientific applications, its social realities, its political realities, etc. 'The environment' is a nebulous concept so we shouldn't be surprised to find that the same is true of 'sustainability.' If you can accept that a book on this topic will be a bit scattered, then you can appreciate it. -Ryan Mease
There is no such thing as sustainability.The joke is on you.
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