ABSTRACT
One of the most disturbing trends both globally and within individual countries is the widening of gaps between rich and poor, and the continued existence of widespread poverty and discrimination within affluent and supposedly democratic societies. These inequities have many direct and indirect effects that weaken social capital and harm the environment. Poverty-stricken families seeking fuel deforest countrysides in the developing world. Potential engineers and designers who might have created more sustainable cities instead drop out of school to support their families. The richest 1 percent of the population appropriate resources that societies instead might have devoted to addressing social and environmental problems. And elites and the corporations they control shape the politics of countries towards their own ends rather than any sort of common good. These are huge problems standing in the way of progress toward sustainability.
