Book review - Sustainability: A History

One reason for starting this blog is to keep track of reading and activities related to professional development, including article and book recaps/reviews.  The first in this series is on:

Sustainability: A History by Jeremy L. Caradonna

This is an incredibly important book to the study of sustainability in that it helps unpack the strands of thought, political movements and scientific disciplines that have contributed to it as an idea.  The broad thesis is that there is not one singular concept or movement around sustainability, but rather a constellation of related - but often contradictory - philosophies, goals and ideologies.  Just as climate change' is not one singular problem but rather a host of tightly linked causes and effects, sustainability and sustainists represent a wide range of answers to these problems.  Understanding this complexity is the first step toward progress.  By acknowledging where we differ and where we align, we can begin to shape a consensus response to the greatest challenges our species has ever faced.
First, Caradonna traces the history of ideas and practices that might be considered 'sustainable', i.e. taking an interest in the management of the natural environment and resources in such a way that they will endure for future generations.  (The actual definition of 'sustainability' is a matter of some debate, and Caradonna discusses this at some length, but as the entire work presents multiple different views of the concept, I won't provide a fixed or detailed definition here.)  This history begins with early European forestry practices that sought to ensure the continued availability of woodland resources for future generations, through the philosophical and political dissents to Industrialism, up to the earliest warning signs about carbon emissions.
This history brings us to the current state of affairs, where various theoretical and political strands influence the sustainability movement, from ecological economics to climate justice.  Sustainability is a spectrum of ideas, some that embrace Capitalism and economic growth and some that reject them as inherently unsustainable.  Some are concerned with non-human ecosystems, while others focus on 'climate justice' and the unequal distribution of the causes and effects of climate change among different populations.  Some focus primarily on carbon emissions in the atmosphere, while others are concerned with other systems such as biodiversity, soil and water quality and rare earth resources.  Some emphasise conservation, using current biodiversity, carbon and biomass levels as a baseline, while others want to wind the clock back through rewilding and other such mechanisms.
It is important to consider the potential of each of these contrasting mechanisms.  What would the results look like?  Who would pay for them? What are the impacts on other countries, on people living in poverty, on people with disabilities?  How quickly would the results take effect relative to the IPCC estimate that we have ten years in which to prevent climate catastrophe?  Caradonna does not provide answers, or privilege one approach over others. The role of this book is not to say who is right but to catalogue the relevant histories and philosophies of sustainability.  It is in the interest of those who seek to discredit sustainists to lump them together in one monolithic stereotype, so by presenting the different strands of thought within the sustainability movement, Caradonna challenges the reader to consider their relation to it.
For me, this book was an ideal place to start delving deeper into sustainability, social responsibility and environmental justice.  I had somewhat taken for granted that sustainability meant roughly the same thing to everyone.  I'm sure I'll be returning to this book as a reference in the future.  For the purposes of this blog, I think it's useful to take Caradonna as a prompt to position myself in relation to the various sustainability movements.  I believe that we should be working to set the clock back to pre-Industrial levels, with the eventual goal of minimum long-term management of the environment by humans (e.g. through rewilding), while bringing quality of life up for those in poverty around the world.  I am sceptical about the ability of Capitalist systems to be sustainable, but I believe that to take effect in the time required the solutions need to operate within Capitalism.  I also have many blind spots, for example I don't know exactly how land use theories say that the world can support both rewilding and food production at current and projected population levels.  I don't know how digitalisation can be harnessed to make the situation better rather than worse.  Sustainability: A History raised many more questions than it answered.
The next step on my journey is to explore more solutions to the host of problems that I will for shorthand refer to as the climate emergency, including global warming, soil quality, biodiversity loss, coral bleaching, plastic pollution, extractive industries and climate injustice.  I want to know what can be done quickly, what can be done over the long term, and how the labour of climate action breaks down between industries, policymakers and ordinary people.  
I'll let you know what I find out!  Bye for now, and stay curious!