Sustainability: The Basics (the Basics)

This second edition now includes coverage of the Sustainable Development Goals, a global range of case studies and explores the complex social dynamics of Earth system changes that affect our critical life supports. The book also proposes a new, "sustainable humanism" that animates much of our work to make a better, more humane world.

Sustainability is a pressing concern for people and governments around the world, but it is also an essentially contested concept that requires an understanding of the stakes, trade-offs, and complex politics at play. Sustainability: The Basics offers an accessible and interdisciplinary introduction to the concept, and discusses key questions such as:

• What are the core principles of sustainability?
• What are the key ethical considerations for questions of sustainability?
• How do we measure sustainability?
• What are the critical obstacles to achieving global sustainability?
• What happens when societies fail to observe principles of sustainability?

Fully updated in its second edition, Sustainability: The Basics now includes coverage of the Sustainable Development Goals, a global range of case studies and explores the complex social dynamics of Earth system changes that affect our critical life supports. The second edition also proposes a new, "sustainable humanism" that animates much of our work to make a better, more humane world.

As the world reels from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, this book is an ideal starting point for anyone who wants to know more about what we need to do to sustain civilization, humanity, and the world we live in.

Introduction 1. Sustainability: What is at Stake? 2. The Principles of Sustainability 3.Endurance and Ruin: An Economic Memoire 4. Measuring Sustainability 5. Ethics, Justice, Moral Order, and Oblivion 6. Politics at the End of the World 7. The Collapse of Civilizations and Dark Ages Conclusion

Peter Jacques is Professor in the School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs and the National Center for Integrated Coastal Research at the University of Central Florida.