Measures for sustainability

Excerpt

Sustainability, conceptually, is an integrated descriptor of the conditions of the environment, society, and the economy. But it does not imply equal importance of these three domains in the integration. The current concept of sustainability emerged from concerns about environmental degradation, suggesting that of the three, the environment is by far the largest influencer. Though we cannot quite ascertain what the relative proportions of these three domains are, it is certain that the proportions will depend on the particular system under study and its scale. For instance, global sustainability these days is being almost wholly looked upon in terms of climate change caused by global warming due to accumulating greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The other two conditions of economy and society at this scale are considered secondary. The thought forwarded on this point is that the possibility of global catastrophe caused by climate change renders the other two conditions irrelevant. But consideration of regional sustainability of a metropolis, on the other hand, cannot ignore the local air and water quality and the economic imbalance among citizens, both of which tend to destabilize civil society. …