The Sustainability Curriculum

Chapter 18

Conclusion: The Future –Is Sustainability Sustainable?

Cedric Cullingford

There are two levels to the concept of sustainability. One is scientific. This is the issue of climate change or the greenhouse effect, of pollution and the threat of environmental disaster due to the determination to pursue immediate gratification without caring about the long-term results of such greed. The second level is moral. This is the issue of globalization, of the widening distinctions between the rich and the poor and the tensions between the concept of sovereignty and intervention.

The two levels are intimately connected. Whatever the scientific arguments about cause and effect, the decisions to cut down rain forests, to make paper and clear land ...