On The Issues Involved in Sustainability:
The Earth has a limited supply of resources, as does the surrounding areas in space that humans may exploit in the future. For centuries, humanity has been using up the earth’s resources, often in wasteful ways. The environmental movement hopes to reverse this process and reach a level where the planet and all it houses reaches a level of sustainability, if not rejuvenation. Critics think that the carrying capacity of earth has already been surpassed and that the tragedy of the commons will continue to degrade resources at an unsustainable level. It is too late, they say, we have already gone too far and there’s no turning back. The optimistic side contends that we are far from reaching the carrying capacity of the planet and whther through exploitation of resources in space or the critical management of our own here on earth, we will indeed reverse the process of degredation. What opinions exist among secularists? Can we achieve sustainability or not? This debate hopes to explore the issues involved in the question of sustainability.