What is Sustainability?
Reducing Our Consumption
- As economics is has its bases on the use of natural resources, managing our use of them is key to the success of our species.
- While some resources don't regenerate (or do so extremely slowly), such as metals and fossil fuels, most resources can regenerate over time if not overused.
- If we overuse these resources, it is effectively stealing these resources from future generations.
Example
- One of the metrics that can measure sustainability is World Overshoot Day.
- World Overshoot Day is when humanities' demands for natural resources exceeds what Earth can produce in a year.
- For the rest of the year past World Overshoot Day, humanity is consuming the resources of future generations.
- World Overshoot Day for 2024 was August 1st, not exactly impressive.
- Ideally World Overshoot day would be around the end of December.
Environmental Protection
- Another facet of sustainability is the protection of the environment and preventing further degradation.
- Sustainability proves increasingly important in all economic analysis as planetary boundaries are pushed to their limit.
Sources