Sustainability

source citation: http://dictionary.reference.com/cite.html?qh=sustainable&ia=luna

to support, hold, or bear up from below; bear the weight of, as a structure.

2.	to bear (a burden, charge, etc.).

3.	to undergo, experience, or suffer (injury, loss, etc.); endure without giving way or yielding.

4.	to keep (a person, the mind, the spirits, etc.) from giving way, as under trial or affliction.

5.	to keep up or keep going, as an action or process: to sustain a conversation.

6.	to supply with food, drink, and other necessities of life.

7.	to provide for (an institution or the like) by furnishing means or funds.

8.	to support (a cause or the like) by aid or approval.

9.	to uphold as valid, just, or correct, as a claim or the person making it: The judge sustained the lawyer's objection.

10.	to confirm or corroborate, as a statement: Further investigation sustained my suspicions.

We talk a lot these days about something being sustainable but I think we are confusing it with the term renewable. Although sustainable fish farming supplies us with fish, it is not necessarily renewable, as we see with the current salmon situation. By sustaining, in the case we mean that it can keep going. Unfortunately for the fish, this is not the case, nor is it the case for energy sources such as oil and water, which don't mix but you knew that already, smartypants. We cannot sustain organic substances at their current level, we simply do not have the wherewithal, the resources and we are far too much of a consumptive society. That is not to say that there are not several organic substances that will last a very long time from now. But in order to sustain current levels the infrastructure of the environment needs to exercise some serious conservation. We need to watch for the signs or depletion and construct and manage accordingly. We have to check in on the bees and the worms and make sure that they are still doing their job. We have to give to those organizations that are trying to sustain. Sustain, keep at the current levels. We have to do our part to ensure the continuation of that which we need: energy, whole food, shelter, clothing which is why conservation (not rationing silly) is important. Have thought in the everyday things you do, don't be wasteful, be mindful. Be considerate.

Now renewable energies, entirely different, yet not unrelated subject.

But I have to come back to this in the next post.