The problem with sustainability

In the end, the idea of sustainability is simple because it demands simplicity.

So, what are the barriers to this?

Already mentioned is our completely mad ability to find complexity in things (this has something to do with wanting to see and control detail) and our fear of change – of being shunted out of our norms. This lies at the root of a big driver of our unsustainable economy: the need for acceptance through conformity; "peer pressure", "keeping up with the Jones'". The only outlet for this seems to be through consumption: having the same or more "stuff" than our neighbours, mates, etc. To miss out on things, to have a smaller house (with fewer bathrooms for God's sake), to have fewer clothes, to wear them longer, no have an untidy garden, an unmown lawn, an older car, an car that doesn't shine,to have fewer overseas holidays … is madness.

Without discussing this for too long, it's worth noting that this "peer pressure" can be used to direct us towards sustainability – if sustainable/sustaining things were desirable. This highlights the cultural nature of the problem of shifting from being unsustainable to being sustainable. This is the area for the biggest sustainability project, the place for the most work. Our physical environment, economy and culture all interact. We change our view of the environment, we change our economy, we change our culture. Redesign economy and you redesign culture and vice-versa. These sorts of shifts have been and will continue to be made. It's about what is made, or becomes, desirable. And something that makes you happier has at least got some desirability.

Another barrier to sustainability is our infatuation with technology. Those laws of physics, such as relativity, have a distinct advantage. They are to do with science, which delivers us technology – feeding consumption, industry and the economy. Sustainability has the distinct disadvantage of involving not just technological, but biological, social, economic and cultural things. From the perspective of our daily lives (working for the economy) it's too easy to see only the complexity and the need to shift from our norms, that could come with it. Science is straight ahead… easy... it delivers… things that make the economy grow.

There are some interesting points here. Firstly, saying technology is a barrier to sustainability will annoy those people (most of us) who think technology will deliver sustainability. But we don't have that much control over technology, or at least, its pervasiveness, our reliance on it and its control of us. Technology designs us as much as we design it. In the end, technology and our inability to control our infatuation with it, has made us unsustainable. A symptom of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

In the end, sustainability is human culture getting smarter and moving on to a new level.