Every day, we are presented with a range of sustainable products and activities - from green cleaning supplies to carbon offsets - but with so much labeled as sustainable, the term has become essentially sustainababble, at best indicating a practice or product slightly less damaging than the conventional alternative. Is it time to abandon the concept altogether, or can we find an accurate way to measure sustainability? If so, how can we achieve it? And if not, how can we best prepare for the coming ecological decline?
In the latest edition of Worldwatch Institute'sState of the World series, scientists, policy experts, and thought leaders tackle these questions, attempting to restore meaning to sustainability as more than just a marketing tool. In State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible?, experts define clear sustainability metrics and examine various policies and perspectives, including geoengineering, corporate transformation, and changes in agricultural policy, that could put us on the path to prosperity without diminishing the well-being of future generations. If these approaches fall short, the final chapters explore ways to prepare for drastic environmental change and resource depletion, such as strengthening democracy and societal resilience, protecting cultural heritage, and dealing with increased conflict and migration flows.
State of the World 2013 cuts through the rhetoric surrounding sustainability, offering a broad and realistic look at how close we are to fulfilling it today and which practices and policies will steer us in the right direction. This book will be especially useful for policymakers, environmental nonprofits, and students of environmental studies, sustainability, or economics.
Acknowledgments State of the World:A Year in Review \ Alison Singer Beyond Sustainababble \ Robert Engelman
PART I. The Sustainability Metric -Respecting Planetary Boundaries and Reconnecting to the Biosphere \ Carl Folke -Defining a Safe and Just Space for Humanity \ Kate Raworth -Getting to One-Planet Living \ Jennie Moore and William E. Rees -Sustaining Freshwater and Its Dependents \ Sandra Postel -Sustainable Fisheries and Seas: Preventing Ecological Collapse \ Antonia Sohns and Larry Crowder -Energy as Master Resource \ Eric Zencey -Renewable Energy's Natural Resource Impacts \ Shakuntala Makhijani and Alexander Ochs -Conserving Nonrenewable Resources \ Gary Gardner
PART II. Getting to True Sustainability -Re-engineering Cultures to Create a Sustainable Civilization \ Erik Assadourian -Building a Sustainable and Desirable Economy-in-Society-in-Nature \ Robert Costanza, Gar Alperovitz, Herman Daly, Joshua Farley, Carol Franco, Tim Jackson, Ida Kubiszewski, Juliet Schor, and Peter Victor -Transforming the Corporation into a Driver of Sustainability \ Pavan Sukhdev -Corporate Reporting and Externalities \ Jeff Hohensee -Keep Them in the Ground: Ending the Fossil Fuel Era \ Thomas Princen, Jack P. Manno, and Pamela Martin -Beyond Fossil Fuels: Assessing Energy Alternatives \ T. W. Murphy, Jr. -Energy Efficiency in the Built Environment \ Phillip Saieg -Agriculture: Growing Food-and Solutions \ Danielle Nierenberg -Protecting the Sanctity of Native Foods \ Melissa K. Nelson -Valuing Indigenous Peoples \ Rebecca Adamson, Danielle Nierenberg, and Olivia Arnow -Crafting a New Narrative to Support Sustainability \ Dwight E. Collins, Russell M. Genet, and David G. Christian -Moving Toward a Global Moral Consensus on Environmental Action \ Kathleen Dean Moore and Michael P. Nelson -Pathways to Sustainability: Building Political Strategies \ Melissa Leach -Moving from Individual Change to Societal Change \ Annie Leonard
PART III. Open in Case of Emergency -Teaching for Turbulence \ Michael Maniates -Effective Crisis Governance \ Brian Martin -Governance in the Long Emergency \ David W. Orr -Building an Enduring Environmental Movement \ Erik Assadourian -Resistance: Do the Ends Justify the Means? \ Bron Taylor -The Promises and Perils of Geoengineering \ Simon Nicholson -Cuba: Lessons from a Forced Decline \ Pat Murphy and Faith Morgan -Climate Change and Displacements \ Michael Renner -Cultivating Resilience in a Dangerous World \ Laurie Mazur -Shaping Community Responses to Catastrophe \ Paula Green -Is It Too Late? \ Kim Stanley Robinson
"Its global focus is a strength in drawing out the trends and interrelationships among worldwide environmental events and their impact on all the systems that human populations depend on."
