Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T23:20:51.789Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Age of Transition to Sustainability: The End of the Exponential Growth Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

John Cairns Jr.
John Cairns Jr.*
Affiliation:
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA
*
Correspondence should be sent to Department of Biology, 1020 Derring Hall, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA (E-mail: [email protected]).
Get access

Abstract

Arguably, no curve in the world increases indefinitely—certainly no growth curve of human society. The quest for sustainable use of the planet involves estimating levels of activity, particularly resource use, that can continue indefinitely. Since the biosphere is dynamic, this continuation is not a stagnant, steady-state situation but rather a mutualistic interactive relationship between human society and the planet's ecological life support system. Human technology, creativity, and ingenuity may modify natural laws, but cannot be used to repeal them. Attempts to maintain the recent exponential growth of the human population, affluence, and artifacts cannot continue forever, or probably even for another century. At best, quality of life will be diminished, and, at worst, a substantial loss of human life will occur if both ethical and ecological issues are not freely and openly discussed. Sustainability may be visionary and unattainable, but it does offer an opportunity to improve the quality of life for future generations of humans and the other life forms, an opportunity that is far greater than possible with present unsustainable practices.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , September 2001 , pp. 131 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abramovitz, J. (2001). “Averting Natural Disasters.” In Worldwatch Institute (ed.), State of the World. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Bartlett, A.A. (1994). Arithmetic, Population, and Energy. A 65-minute videotape copyrighted by the Regents of the University of Colorado. Copies available from Kate Albers, Information Technology Services, University of Colorado, Boulder 80309-0379 (telephone: 303-492-1857).Google Scholar
Beyers, R.J. and Odum, O.T. (1993). Ecological Microcosms. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bjerklie, D., Dorfman, A., Dowell, W., Buchanan, R., Calabresi, M., Dickerson, J.F., Thompson, D., Kan, W., Kirwin, J., and Ressner, J. (2001). “Feeling the Heat.” Time 157(14):22–36.Google Scholar
Boulding, K.E. (1971). “Foreword to T. R. Mathus Population: The First Essay.” In Boulding, K.E., Collected Papers, vol. 11. Boulder, CO: Colorado Associated University Press.Google Scholar
Cairns, J. Jr. (1994). “Ecological Restoration: Re-examining Human Society's Relationship with Natural Systems.” The Abel Wolman Distinguished Lecture. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Cairns, J. Jr. (1997). “Global Coevolution of Natural Systems and Human Society.” Revista de la Sociedad Mexicana Historia Natural 47:217–28.Google Scholar
Cairns, J. Jr. (1998). “Consilience or Consequences: Alternative Scenarios for Societal Acceptance of Sustainability Initiatives.” Renewable Resources Journal 16(2):6–12.Google Scholar
Cairns, J. Jr. (1999). “An Epic Struggle: Sustainability and the Emergence of a New Social Contract.” The Social Contract IX(4):211–18.Google Scholar
Cairns, J. Jr. (2001). “Speculative Scenarios about Sustainable Use of the Planet.” The Social Contract XL(2):146–52.Google Scholar
Caldwell, L.K. (1972). In Defense of Earth: International Protection of the Biosphere. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Costanza, R., d'Arge, R., de Groot, R., Farber, S., Grasso, M., Hannon, B., Limburg, K., Naeem, S., O'Neill, R., Paruelo, J., Raskin, R., Sutton, P., and van den Belt, M. (1997). “The Value of the World's Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital.” Nature 387:23–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Douthwaite, R. (1999). The Growth Illusion. Gabriola Island, British Columbia: New Society Publishers.Google Scholar
Dubos, R. (1980). The Wooing of Earth. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.Google Scholar
Dunning, J.B., Stewart, D.J., Danielson, B.J., Noon, B.R., Root, T.L., Lamberson, R.J. and Stevens, E.E. (1995). “Spatially Explicit Population Models: Current Forms and Future Uses”. Ecological Applications 5:3–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durant, W. and Durant, A. (1968). The Lessons of History. New York: MJF Books.Google Scholar
Ehrlich, P.R. (2000). Human Natures. Washington, DC: Island Press.Google Scholar
Flavin, C. (2001). “Rich Planet, Poor Planet.” In Worldwatch Institute (ed.), State of the World. New York: WW. Norton.Google Scholar
Hardin, G. (1993). Living Within Limits. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, J.M., Wise, T.A., Gallager, K.P., and Goodwin, N.R. (2001). A Survey of Sustainable Development. New York: Island Press.Google Scholar
Hawken, R., Lovins, A., and Lovins, H. (1999). Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution. New York: Little, Brown and Company.Google Scholar
Hayes, D. (2000). The Official Earth Day Guide to Planet Repair. Washington, DC: Island Press.Google Scholar
Kane, H. (2001). Triumph of the Mundane: The Unseen Trends that Shape Our Lives and Environment. Washington, DC: Island Press.Google Scholar
McNeill, J.R. (2000). Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World. London: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Myers, N. with Kent, J. (1998). Perverse Subsidies: Tax $s Undercutting Our Economies and Environments Alike. Winnipeg, Manitoba: International Institute for Sustainable Development.Google Scholar
Odum, E.P. (2001). “The Techno-Ecosystem.”' Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 82(2):137–38.Google Scholar
Odum, W.E., Odum, E.P., and Odum, H.T. (1995). “Nature's Pulsing Paradigm.” Estuaries 18(4):547–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raffensperger, C. and Tickner, J. (1999). Protecting Public Health and the Environment: Implementing the Precautionary Principle. Washington, DC: Island Press.Google Scholar
Raspail, J. (1975). The Camp of the Saints. English translation. Petoskey, Ml: The Social Contract Press.Google Scholar
Singer, S.F. (1998). Hot Talks, Cold Science: Global Warming's Unfinished Debate. Oakland, CA: Independent Institute.Google Scholar
Stevenson, R.L. (2001) “Trilbies Are Fashionable Again.” Quoted by A. Cook in BBC Letter to America, April 23.Google Scholar
Uhlich, G. (1994–1995). “Out of Africa.” The Social Contract V(2):102–3.Google Scholar
Wackernagel, M. and Rees, W.E. (1996). Our Ecological Footprint. Gabriola Island, British Columbia: New Society Publishers.Google Scholar
World Commission on Environment and Development (1987). Our Common Future. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar