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Sustainability - Definitions

The prolonged ability to maintain a level of consumption The usage of resources so as to maximize what is available while at the same time trying to minimize the harm done to the environment and allowing enough resources to be available for future generations

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Sustainability - Definitions

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  1. The prolonged ability to maintain a level of consumption • The usage of resources so as to maximize what is available while at the same time trying to minimize the harm done to the environment and allowing enough resources to be available for future generations • A way of life that ensures a basic quality of life for all beings currently in existence, breathing or not, that can persist for future generations of all species without unnaturally decreasing biodiversity and ensuring the future of all life and intrinsic beauty on the planet • An approach that tries to have as little impact, environmentally, economically, socially, etc, such that when all is said and done, there is little physical evidence it ever even took place • The ability to maintain the control of resources in a manner that will serve the future generations to come • The ability to be continuous without artificial inputs • The effort to use a resource or system in a manner so that the resource will not be depleted and the system can theoretically function indefinitely • Using resources in a responsible manner that preserves our lifestyle (especially our degree of consumption) to be enjoyed by future generations • Finding a way to develop the world in a way that we will be able to maintain • Efforts of people attempting to support the current population, environment, and society based on their given resources and level of development so as to make those resources last as long as possible • Using ones resources wisely and consciously in order to prevent the rapid deterioration of our world and the effects that unconscious consumption has on developed and developing nations Sustainability - Definitions

  2. The Christian Worldview, per White Place and role of God Place and role of humanity Place and role of nature Vision of time and history

  3. What people do about their ecology depends on what they think about themselves in relation to things around them. Human ecology is deeply conditioned by beliefs about our nature and destiny–that is, by religion. --Lynn White, p. 1205

  4. The victory of Christianity over paganism was the greatest psychic revolution in the history of our culture. --Lynn White, p. 1205

  5. The whole concept of sacred grove is alien to Christianity and the ethos of the West. For nearly two millennia Christian missionaries have been chopping down sacred groves because they assume spirit in nature. --Lynn White, p. 1206

  6. Our daily habits of action . . . are dominated by an implicit faith in human perpetual progress which was unknown either to Greco-Roman antiquity or to the Orient. It is rooted in, and is indefensible apart from, Judeo-Christian teleology. --Lynn White, p. 1205

  7. The Christian Worldview, per White Place and role of God Place and role of humanity Place and role of nature Vision of time and history

  8. How might Lynn White’s argument be reconstructed?

  9. Today’s ecologic crisis (at least in 1967) is caused by large-scale human impacts driven by modern science and technology (MST). MST arose during the Europe’s Scientific Revolution beginning in the 15th and 16th centuries. By the end of the 15th century the small, mutually hostile Christian nations of Europe had begun spilling out all over the world conquering, looting, and colonizing much of the planet by using MST. The presuppositions underlying MST stem from the history of Christianity. Pagan animism was generally friendly toward nature and employed various constraints on the alternation of nature. The destruction of pagan animism by Christianity during the transition from the Medieval Period to the rise of MST ended these constraints. Ending these restraints was driven by a Western Roman Empire Tradition (WRET) of Christianity in which salvation was found through right conduct and by conquering nature. This WRET stemmed from Christianity’s radical anthropocentrism, its dualism of humans and nature, and God’s commands to control, exploit, and dominate nature. Therefore, our ecologic crisis is caused by Christianity. “Since the roots of our trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must also be essentially religious” [and not merely scientific or technological]. Rethinking Christianity is essential to solving our environmental problems and ecologic crisis.

  10. “The Tragedy of the Commons” by Garrett Hardin (1968) What precisely is Hardin’s argument? How can you reconstruct it? And is it a good argument?

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