Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment

Sustainability, a term still fairly new to the lexicon, defies a tidy definition in part because it can be applied to virtually every aspect of human activity and thus encompasses the complex interaction among economic, social, and environmental factors. Perhaps the best working definition of the term is derived from the 1987 report titled Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report. The report identifies sustainable development as“development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

We now know that our development patterns, our exploitation of natural resources, our seemingly insatiable demand for energy, and the growing disparity between rich and poor nations are inextricably linked and, together, will shape the world we leave behind for those who follow. Garret Hardin, in his 1968 essay for Science titled “Tragedy of the Commons,” addresses the inequitable distribution of the planet’s resources. Hardin argues that the self-interested “haves”—including the United States and other rich, developed countries—profit most from consumption of common though finite natural resources like fossil

fuels. Meanwhile, the environmental burdens that result from that exploitation—among them pollution and global climate change—are shared by all of the world’s peoples, including the “have-nots.” To illustrate, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2004 the United States consumed 22.5 percent of the global energy supply but boasted only 4.6 percent of world’s population and produced a mere 15.9 percent of the world’s energy.

In Hardin’s widely shared view, continuation of current policies and practices is clearly not sustainable and will, if unaltered, pass on a legacy of overtaxed ecological systems, polluted air and water, dire poverty, and a critical shortage of nonrenewable natural resources.

We at ISSE are determined to capitalize on our science and public policy skills to help ensure that future generations inherit a healthy—and sustainable—planet. Science provides us with powerful tools for understanding the complex interrelationship between human behaviors and limited, fragile natural systems. Public policy affords us the opportunity to encourage practices that sustain, rather than degrade, the natural environment. ISSE scientists have operated successfully in these research areas for more than 30 years. [continued...]