Hi Alex here. Nice to see you again. I am excited today because, we are answering the
4 most searched questions about sustainability on Google.
This is the TOP 4 questions people have when they search sustainability on Google:
What is a simple definition of sustainability? What are the 3 pillars of sustainability?
Why is sustainability so important? and How can we achieve sustainability?
Ok, let’s answer the first question: Sustainability is the capacity of our human
society to continue indefinitely within Earth's natural cycles.
Then a development that leads toward full sustainability.
It makes sense so far, right!?
What are these natural cycles? In 1989, after many drafts, a group of 50 scientists agreed
on a few key things about how Earth’s natural cycles function. I explained all this in another
video: You can click in the top right corner to watch it.
This scientific consensus made it possible to look at the things that we (humans) do
to interfere with these natural cycles. These are the four four root causes of un-sustainability:
We extract large flows of materials from the Earth's crust.
We create an accumulation of substances produced by society.
We physically inhibit nature's ability to run its cycles and...
We create barriers to people meeting their basic needs worldwide.
The first three speak to the environment while the fourth one is more social.
But, I am getting ahead of myself... We will talk about these again later when answering
the question "How can we achieve sustainability?”.
OK! Next question!
Sustainability is often presented as having 3 pillars: economic, social and environmental.
This is also known as the "Triple Bottom Line", particularly when talking about sustainability
and business. The concept is often described as three overlapping circles.
Sustainability is typically defined as the place where economy, social realities and
environmental health overlap. But the scientific consensus we mentioned
earlier tells us that, left to its own devices, the planet operates in a balanced way. Photosynthesis
"pays the bills". Without it, creation of structure from energy would not occur, and
entropy could rule the day.
Plant cells belong to the environment circle of the 3 pillars. If plant cells are the original
creators of structure, then this is the circle on which everything else depends, or in which
everything is embedded. Everything comes from nature at some point. Society, which is related
to the social circle of the three pillars, exists within the environment. And economy
is a by-product of society. Instead of three overlapping circles, we have three nested
circles, where the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment. To watch my
longer video about the triple bottom line, you can click in the top right corner.
If you are enjoying the video so far, make sure to hit the thumbs up and subscribe. Done.
OK. Next please!
The third question is: Why is sustainability so important?
Being humans' capacity to survive within Earth's natural cycles, sustainability is important
because it is the only alternative to human extinction.
Here is a way to explain how important sustainability is in a good and useful way: using the metaphor
of a funnel.
On the one hand: the earth’s capacity to provide what we need is declining.
On the other hand: the rate at which we consume resources and generate waste is going
up.
And that's not all!
Governments are changing laws that are getting stricter;
Trust between people is declining; Prices are going up;
Growing inequality around the world results in more social tension;
The world’s population is growing; etc.
It looks like all these trends are converging, right!? And we don’t want to see what happens
if or when they meet.
It is as if we were going deeper into a funnel: the pressure is increasing overtime and we
have less and less margin to maneuver.
I have a video specifically on this funnel metaphor if you want to learn more.
OK, we are almost done, fourh question!
How can we achieve sustainability?
That’s a good one! Achieving sustainability is essentially about meeting human needs within
ecological constraints.
Using the metaphor of the funnel, sustainability can be achieved by ‘opening the funnel’
walls to create a resilient, fulfilling and accessible society that can thrive within
nature’s limits.
From a more scientific perspective, sustainability can be achieved by stopping our contribution
to the 4 root causes of un-sustainability we mentioned earlier.
I other words, to become a sustainable society, we must eliminate our contributions to...
the systematic increase of concentrations of substances extracted from the Earth's crust
(for example heavy metals and fossil fuels) the systematic increase of concentrations
of substances produced by society (for example plastics, PCBs and DDT)
the systematic physical degradation of nature and natural processes (for example over-harvesting
forests, destroying habitat and overfishing); and...
conditions that systematically undermine people’s capacity to meet their basic human needs (for
example, unsafe working conditions and not enough pay to live on).
These principles are very flexible and can be applied at multiple scales, to a person,
a family, a business, a community or even to a nation. There is also a video explaining
these principles in more details. You can click in the top right corner again.
Et voilà! You just saved 2 hours searching these questions and answers on Google!
Was that helpful? Please let me know in the comments below. And also: What is the question
about sustainability that YOU would search on Google?
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