Reframing “sustainability”

I’ve started a second conversation on the Letter platform that I mentioned recently, this time with Andrew Leigh, an Australian MP and author.

In this letter, I put forth three key ideas to frame the debate about “sustainability”:

Our standard in these matters should be a humanistic one: what advances human life, health, and happiness over the long term?
What we want to sustain is not any particular industrial process, but growth. We want sustained and even accelerated advancement in production and standards of living.
Sustaining growth is a moral imperative. Humanity must not grow complacent with our success so far, or rest on our laurels. We must continue to strive vigorously for an improved future.