Every day we hear about topics like sustainable growth and sustainable building, but what does it really mean to be “sustainable?” In broad terms, sustainability quite clearly means that each new year finds the earth in at least as good of a condition as the last one. No increasing degree of deforestation, no fewer fish in the ocean, no higher levels of toxic pollution, and the concentration of atmospheric pollutants the same or better the next year as it was the prior one

Egypt simply reminds us that anything that is unsustainable will someday change. It is an emblem for the world. With abundant energy and food, we are treated to expansive and stable economies in which everyone stands a chance of gaining. Not that everyone will, mind you, but the possibility is there  In an energy-constrained world, what was formerly possible is no longer do-able, things don’t work right, and there seem to be persistent shortages of everything from growth, to money, to food, to goodwill. What used to work doesn’t. It is at these points that the prior stresses and imbalances are most likely to snap and suddenly change the world.

…There is a joke—I can’t remember who I heard it from now—but it goes something like this: a man asks his friend how his marriage is going. When the man answers that it’s “sustainable,” his friend replies: “I’m so sorry to hear that! That’s really too bad!” Being in a perpetual state of transition—both as individuals and societies—keeps us awake. It keeps us alive and continually growing—not necessarily physically and materially, but spiritually and culturally. As both ecology and Permaculture teach, the edges are where the most life is. In this liminal space of great challenge and possibility is where we may discover that our life is most worth living and that there are many things about this world that are actually worth preserving.