I concur with Leonard... here we are trying to define a concept... meanwhile the planet is on its way to getting rid of the human virus infestation... and unfortunately, we will take a lot of species with us... can we focus on getting things happening and less on discussing the meaning of sustainability? Rafael
-----Original Message----- From: Hirsch, Leonard <[email protected]> To: edesombr <[email protected]>; Ronnie D Lipschutz <[email protected]> Cc: GEP-Ed List <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, Aug 30, 2011 6:13 pm Subject: RE: [gep-ed] seeking definitions of sustainability >From an instrumental position, it is the different meanings that make it >meaningless. Might as well talk about what you want for gefliffle.* Once >you start making policy requests based on a concept, you have to have more >consistency. So we now have sustainable growth, sustainable coal, sustainable >nuclear. A concept that cannot be defined in 27 years needs to be retired. Len PS: I am the sustainability officer in my agency. *A made up word some used in some philosophy of science discussion in the 1970s meaning endless conceptual debates. Don’t believe it ever got published. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has” Margaret Mead Leonard P. Hirsch, Senior Policy Advisor Smithsonian Institution 1100 Jefferson Drive SW #3123 PO Box 37012, Q-3123 MRC 705 Washington, DC 20013-7012 1.202.633.4788 1.202.312.2888 fax [email protected] From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Beth DeSombre Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2011 12:35 PM To: Ronnie D Lipschutz Cc: [email protected]; GEP-Ed List Subject: Re: [gep-ed] seeking definitions of sustainability "Ronnie D Lipschutz" <[email protected]> writes: If you look over the courses linked to our Sustainability Engineering and Ecological Design curriculum (http://seed.soe.ucsc.edu/), you may find some useful material. I try not to get too bogged down in definitionalism, since that can go on forever... Our whole point in starting with definitions is to point out that a) there are many different ways to define this concept; b) any definition by necessity prioritizes some things and excludes others, and so c) we're not going to use a definition for our course, but instead talk about the kinds of things we want to mean when we're collectively talking about sustainability, Beth
