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1. What is the contemporary meaning of wealth? 2. What is the meaning of wealth in a more sustainable society? 3. Can we define wealth in a way that is broadly consistent with the first two questions? 4. What needs to be sustained in a sustainable society? 5. What is the proper way of accounting for the well-being of future generations in the way we make decisions today? 6. How do we measure economic success in a sustainable society?
Clean air and water, biodiversity, topsoil, aquifers, stable atmosphere and climate, populations of wild plants and animals, diverse human cultures and communities; traditional knowledge Some items that should be sustained by a sustainable society (just off the top of my list) are undeveloped space, arable land, soil, fresh water, fauna, flora, fresh air, liberty, and democracy. The health of the environment must be sustained in order to support life on Earth. What do we need? Food, place/shelter and space, clean available water, clean air, other people, relationships, education and skills, meaningful work, niches, play, children, childcare, elders, healthcare, ritual and tradition, open space/natural, wild, energy, common stories and myths, appropriate technology, balance, outlets for expression, diversity, animals, boundaries, limits to growth, music, responsibility and service, safety and security, free thought and tolerance for new ideas, respect and communication, an economic system/form of trade. ...ecosystem services, culture, natural resources, leisure time, quality of life... The thing that needs sustained in a sustainable society is the health and integrity of the biosphere. In a sustainable society we must work not only to sustain the environment as healthy, but also ourselves and those around us. We cannot possibly have a healthy ecosystem if we are not healthy ourselves. There must be a consistent balance between many of the disciplines (science, economics, sociology) in order for a society to be sustainable. In a sustainable society, ecosystem services, biodiversity, quality of life and well-being need to be sustained. For a society to be sustainable it needs to have all of the various types of capital working together to accomplish it's goals, whether they are social, economical, or political, in a way that benefits the people and the environment. Quality of life. What needs to be sustained in a sustainable society is both non-renewable natural resources, such as land water and air, as well as functional communities and systems of governance. A viable standard of emotional, physical, spiritual, mental, and economic living needs to be strived for, in balance with ideological goals of survival, harmony, and balance. Supressing movements with ideas for change, which tends to be the trend of the majority, slows down our ability to enact ideas that could benefit and/or change our present methodologies in relation to the health of our society and our planet. Creating such a standard would have to take into account the value of the resource to the local, national, and global communities. A sustainable society must meet the needs of the present without impairing the ability of future generations to meet their needs. In reviewing this question, I have come up with seven key elements that must be treated equally in terms of respect and attention to maintain a high standard and quality sustainable society. They are 1. human life 2. non human life 3. plant life 4. water 5. air 6. natural resources 7. freedom. These seven elements must comply together in total harmony for there to be a sustainable society. Once one is in a state of unbalance, it is only a matter of time until there is a chain reaction with the other elements. In a society that is "sustainable" the means of income must be maintained. This may sound capitalistic, but in most regions of the earth this is the way that we survive. Trade with other regions of the earth is what we depend on for our body's nourishment. Sure I like to munch on sorrel in the forest, but I also like to eat avacados and mangos. It is pretty unrealistic to believe that everybody will be able to sustain their families on the land, which they live. For instance look at Humboldt County. We are now and have always been a region dependant on the timber industry, in this respect it is a lot like where I was raised in Northeastern California. In order for this county to sustain itself, people of Humboldt county must do whatever they can to ensure that the existing timber will be managed in a way that insures that there will be a means to continue our use of the trees. The goal of a sustainable society is to produce a state in which the environment is treated with the greatest amount of respect and dignity as possible, while still being used to support the user. Standards of living need to be sustained and/or raised in areas it is poor or lacking. Health, education and cultural identity all need to be sustained. In order to achieve all this though, our natural resource use and extraction methods must be consistent with the idea of sustainability and not succumb to the current greed-wealth system of economic growth, whereupon growth is measured only in dollars and the bottom line. The resources need to be sustained and allocated so that future generations will have a share. We need to protect our human rights, independent expression of culture, and the natural resources and natural systems of the planet. |