True Sustainability Means Circularity
- 2015-10-06
- Fast Company
Four decades have passed since mankind walked on the moon. This triumphant event marked the first time humans could gaze back at their world. Our round, blue and white planet floating in black space enabled humanity to see the finite nature of their home–it defined the boundaries of our living world. We watched in amazement as Neil Armstrong took his first step and uttered the words, "That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind." This magnificent achievement opened our minds to new desires. Gazing at Earth, we didn’t see what we had made; we saw what had made us: a planet, home to billions of living things, including 3.5 billion human beings.
Our achievement was sparked by a desire among nations to be the first human to step foot on the moon. The Space Race inspired us to dream, createm and achieve the impossible. However, there was another race that continued even after we got into orbit: our population. From our first glimpse of Earth in 1969 our planet’s population has doubled to 7 billion people and is expected to reach 9 billion in this decade.
As our population has grown so has our appetite for material consumption, the engine of economic growth and the measure of human prosperity. According to the 2011 State of the World, "People must consume to survive, and the world’s poorest will need to increase their level of consumption if they are to lead lives of dignity and opportunity."
Emerging markets are predicted to surpass the United States within a decade. Currently, China and India already account for 20% of the global consumer class. According to China’s Ministry of Public Security, they now have more personal vehicles than the United States. All of our human economies, in total, pay little attention to the effects production and consumption has on our planet. This growth in consumption is at the expense of our natural economy, weakening and destroying ecosystems and resources that are vital to the long-term survival of all living things. Despite this ecological disaster, humanity continues to refuse to live within its biological constraints. Paul Hawken wrote in Blessed Unrest, "There is no reason that we cannot build an exquisitely designed economy that matches biology in its diversity, and integrates complexity rather than extinguishing it."