sustainability
by John at 12/20/2007 07:53:00 AM
As you no doubt have noticed, I haven't blogged anything lately but kid pics.
However, this morning I read a blog post over on Pandagon that sent me to an article by Michael Pollan (author of Omnivore's Dilemma, which you should read if you haven't yet) in the NYT Magazine.
Pollan makes a good case that: 1) the word sustainability doesn't really mean anything anymore, because it means whatever we want it to mean* 2) industrial pig farming is responsible for new strains of MRSA circulating in the public and 3) industrial almond growing is the ultimate cause of Colony Collapse Disorder in honeybees.
Amanda Marcotte at Pandagon brings up an interesting point related to this. These systems are inherently unstable and unsustainable, and they are the logical result of capitalism. Is capitalism (at least the way we practice it, if not by its very nature) the enemy of sustainability? I've long that this may be the case, and I suspect I'm not alone in this. However, any discussion of alternate economic systems is forbidden, and generally degrades into accusations of communism or socialism. As if humans had already tried and failed at every other possible way to exchange goods and services, as if modern capitalism was our last and only hope.
Anyway, somethings to think about as you celebrate the Christmas and welcome 2008. Happy New Year, everyone!
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* At my company back in 1999 or so, sustainability became one of our goals. What it meant, however, depended on who was talking (or who was being talked to). To us researchers, it meant a decreasing environmental footprint, but to the money guys, it meant continued economic growth, e.g. stock price, revenue, and profits.
However, this morning I read a blog post over on Pandagon that sent me to an article by Michael Pollan (author of Omnivore's Dilemma, which you should read if you haven't yet) in the NYT Magazine.
Pollan makes a good case that: 1) the word sustainability doesn't really mean anything anymore, because it means whatever we want it to mean* 2) industrial pig farming is responsible for new strains of MRSA circulating in the public and 3) industrial almond growing is the ultimate cause of Colony Collapse Disorder in honeybees.
Amanda Marcotte at Pandagon brings up an interesting point related to this. These systems are inherently unstable and unsustainable, and they are the logical result of capitalism. Is capitalism (at least the way we practice it, if not by its very nature) the enemy of sustainability? I've long that this may be the case, and I suspect I'm not alone in this. However, any discussion of alternate economic systems is forbidden, and generally degrades into accusations of communism or socialism. As if humans had already tried and failed at every other possible way to exchange goods and services, as if modern capitalism was our last and only hope.
Anyway, somethings to think about as you celebrate the Christmas and welcome 2008. Happy New Year, everyone!
- - - - -
* At my company back in 1999 or so, sustainability became one of our goals. What it meant, however, depended on who was talking (or who was being talked to). To us researchers, it meant a decreasing environmental footprint, but to the money guys, it meant continued economic growth, e.g. stock price, revenue, and profits.
