Sustainability thinking is important because:
- We are using resources faster than Earth’s systems can replenish them.
- Many people on Earth are not able to meet their basic needs.
- More and more health problems are being linked to human-caused environmental factors.
- Since we only have one Earth, we need to learn how to change the way we do things.
We will never have more options than we have today
As resources are being depleted, demand for them is simultaneously increasing. In order to balance human needs, demand for resources and availability, institutions, governments, businesses, and individuals need to work together to learn how to create a sustainable future and to implement sustainable practices.
Karl-Heinrich Robert, developer of The Natural Step, perceives that humans have reversed evolution.
"Most people are not aware that it took living cells about 3.5 billion years to transform the virgin soup of the atmosphere -- which was a toxic, chaotic mixture of sulfurous compounds, methane, carbon dioxide, and other substances -- into the conditions that could support complex life.
"In just the last DECADES humans have reversed this trend. First we found concentrated energy like fossil fuels and nuclear power. As a result, we can create such a high throughput of resources that natural processes no longer have the time to process the waste and build new resources.
"Dispersed junk is increasing in the system as we lose soils, forests, and species. So we have reversed evolution. The Earth is running back towards the chaotic state it came from at a tremendous speed."