On the Historiography of Sustainability

Design: E2

Tonight, the boys and I watched some episodes from E2, a series of documentary videos about architects and how they makes use of environmental studies to create sustainable building designs.

It is an important reminder of how knowledge can so often be, but shouldn't be, disconnected from problems solving, and even more, service to a community. knowledge was never intended to be known to pass a test. it is there to be used as a tool of service and it was refreshing to see creative, intelligent, well-educated people using their assets for the good of communities, some, as in the first episode are some of the world's wealthiest. Some, as in the second episode are among the world's poorest.

That word, SUSTAINABILITY is gaining traction everywhere. It implies that a paradigm shift is occurring whose principle feature is a change from thinking twelve months out to twelve decades out.

Sustainability may be understood by referring to a set of five core principles:

Respecting life and natural processes. Sustainability commits us to explicit considerationof the effects of our decisions and actions on the health and wellbeing of the entire community of life.

Living within limits. Sustainabilityinvolves an awareness that natural resourcesare finite endowmentsto be used with care and prudence at a rate consonant with their capacity for regeneration.

Valuing the local. Sustainabilitycommitsus to show respect for the natural components of our neighborhoods and bioregions;to preservation, restoration,and use of local knowledge; and to creation of strong, selfreliant
local economies.

Accounting for full costs. Sustainabilityrequires that we become aware of the costs generated by our products from "source to sink-to the environment and society. Product prices must reflect this awareness.

Sharing power. Sustainability demands we recognize that we are all interconnected-people, biota, and physical elements. Problems are solved by each individual assuming a share of the responsibility.

Green Destiny: Universities Leading the Way to a Sustainable Future
Christopher Uhl; Amy Anderson
BioScience, Vol. 51, No. 1. (Jan., 2001), pp. 36-42.

It makes me sit back and ask, "How will the teaching of history contribute to or inhibit the speed with which we convert to this new way of thinking? How have historians contributed to the lack of sustainability in the way we have been living? is there a historiography of sustainability yet?

The most interesting of the episodes in the series to me was about sustainable archetecture in China right now. See the trailer at: CHINA: FROM RED TO GREEN at PBS.

Question for Comment: How sustainable is your life at the moment? Is it a life that your children and grandchildren could continue living? Why or why not?