ABSTRACT
Sustainability is a multidisciplinary field that encompasses the entire planet and its constituents and inhabitants as a whole. That makes decisions about what not to include in its history as difficult as decisions about what to include. Earth’s planetary system has until recently maintained a balance of dynamic equilibrium-it has been sustainable-since its beginnings approximately 4.5 billion years ago. So the history of sustainability as a concept, the state of being sustainable, could in one view encompass the entire long and interwoven story of our planet. Telling the life story of our planet involves most of the science disciplines including atmospheric science, geology, chemistry, and biology.
