State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible?

without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”1

desirable, well-being-enhancing activity from undesirable, well-being-reducing activity.

Energy Trap. This, according to physicist Tom Murphy, comes about because the energy it takes to build the

The thermodynamic revolution in economics also suggests a different conceptual slicing of human productive activity, an alternative to the triumvirate of land, labor, and capital that is offered by neoclassical theory. All economic value is produced by intelligence operating on matter using energy. Capital—the tools and equipment we use to increase

well-managed aquaculture are a few solutions

Adaptive management.

Preliminary analyses have estimated quantitative planetary boundaries for seven of the nine processes or elements: climate change, stratospheric ozone, ocean acidification, the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, biodiversity loss, land use change, and freshwater use.

would internalize external costs,

Fidel Castro has said that “consumer based societies are incompatible with the saving of natural resources and energy that the development and preservation of our species require,” and Cubans simply have less of all material goods than people in industrial countries. They have much smaller homes (about 150 square feet per person in Havana compared