Is Hope a Four Letter Word?

I will structure the next several blogs in a question and answer format. The questions are ones that seem to be floating unanswered around the media lately. I propose answers to these questions given my professional experience and study of sustainability issues over the past 17 years.

In the face of global environmental trends, increasing population, rising natural resource consumption, and the fact that the 2 billion people around this world who live on less than two dollars a day deserve to have their basic needs of food, shelter, clean water, sanitation, education and health care met; is there hope for a sustainable future?

When you take an honest, hard look at environmental and social equity trends, the future looks bleak. However, what good does it do to throw our hands up? Philip James Bailey, author of Festus, wrote "The worst way to improve the world is to condemn it." With that in mind, we should think about issues globally because we're all part of the interconnected web of life on this planet and do what we can at a local level. Hopefully our efforts will serve as a role model for others. It takes a brave effort to actually hope and help build that sustainable future.

I challenge you to create your own vision of what a sustainable future looks like. I don't think this has been done yet in a way that is appealing to the public. A sustainable future should incorporate elements that make it appear even better than what we have today. Think about sustainability elements: organic agriculture, mass transit, closed loop manufacturing and renewable energy. There are so many benefits from these four elements. Organic food tastes better than conventionally grown produce, it has about 20% more vitamins, and is better for the environment. When mass transit goes where I need to go, it's far better than driving: I can read a book instead of fighting stop-and-go traffic. Closed loop manufacturing reduces waste and saves manufacturers money. Renewable energy supports small businesses, reduces the amount of carcinogens released, reduces air pollution, and, because it is often decentralized, is less of a terrorist target.

A sustainable future needs us to envision it and it needs us to make it happen.