It looks like events, trends, and my work are conspiring (so to speak) to require me to make a sustained study of sustainability. One thing I'm going to be on the watch for is evidence that sustainability partisans (and theorists) keep in mind the simple fact that nature itself goes through cyclical processes, and that no one element of these processes is indefinitely sustainable.

Take the alder.

In my neck of the woods (and, apparently, elsewhere, such as Estonia), after a bout of deforestation (from whatever cause), alders are the first trees to emerge in the deforestted area, following the growth of scrub like blackberries and thistle. But alder growth isn't sustainable. The trees provide shade for the growth of conifers such as fir and hemlock and spruce. These then grow taller and shade out and kill the alder.

It is a natural cycle. I will be on the watch for lack of a long-term cyclical perspective from sustainability advocates. The truth is, progress, as human beings experience it, individually and in families, and in larger groupings, goes through cycles, stages. An individual's educational period is not sustainable, nor do we want it to be, really. We expect the most concentrated periods of education to be in a person's younger years. Later on, some mastery should be attained, allowing for productive work where the person can actually accomplish things.

We wouldn't want to sustain a person's education.

Just so, even, in societies. As populations and industries change, sustainability is not the issue. Progress is.

On the face of it, sustainability seems to me an alternative to progress as a model for human lives and economies. As such, the intellectual movement could give cover to the enemies of real human improvements.

And real human problems, such as pollution, or over-harvesting, get swept under the rug as unrealistic ideals take the place of good reasoning.

Well, this is only my suspicion. I could very well be wrong.

I'll see, as I continue to research the issue. It could be that sustainability theorists have already dealt with this issue at length and in a sophisticated fashion, and I just haven't come across even an inkling yet of their sophistication.

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