ABSTRACT

Sustainability is concerned with the issues around the ongoing and mutual preservation of both society and the environment. It is a widely used term and supposed goal for many governments but it is also easily misunderstood. Sustainability: The Basics offers an accessible and interdisciplinary introduction to the concept, and discusses key questions such as:

  • How do we decide who or what should be sustained?
  • How can we ensure that the world’s resources are distributed fairly?
  • What lessons can we learn from the collapse of previous civilizations?

Sustainability studies is in a position to ask some of the most interesting questions about human purpose, identity, modernity, ethics, and the nature of "progress". This book is an ideal starting point for anyone who wants to know more about we can ‘hold up’ civilization, humanity, and the world we live in.

chapter |14 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|20 pages

Sustainability: What is at stake?

chapter 2|26 pages

The principles of sustainability

chapter 3|23 pages

Endurance and ruin: An economic memoire

chapter 4|37 pages

Measuring sustainability

chapter 5|25 pages

Ethics, justice, moral order, and oblivion

chapter 6|29 pages

Politics at the end of the world