But we have another, more promising option: Use different words or the same words differently. Most especially, we can leave the “s word” ( sustainability ) at the door or reframe it entirely. Let’s unpack suggestions for how we might do this.
As for the bar-tailed godwit, they're a highly neat paragon of a different kind of adaptation.
For the curious, tens of thousands of these birds migrate annually from southern Alaska all the way across the Pacific Ocean to eastern Australia and New Zealand—a journey of more than 7 thousand miles, or more than 11 thousand kilometers.
We can’t only focus on the ‘S word’ anymore – 69% of people claim to take action to live in ways that benefit others and the planet. When the word 'sustainability' is included, that number drops to 54%.
"We basically have three choices: mitigation, adaptation, and suffering," Harvard climate expert John Holden once said. "We're going to do some of each. The question is what the mix is going to be. The more mitigation we do, the less adaptation will be required and the less suffering there will be." That was in 2007. The tension between those three... See more