Sustainability simply refers to the long-term viability of an activity, sys-tem, or series of interdependent systems. Over the years, this simple concept has received a wide range of definitions: Development that meets the needs of of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. [BRUNTLAND] Management practices that are designed to ensure that the exploitation of resources is conducted in a manner that protects the resource base for use by future generations. [FONTANA] Sustainability is an economic state where the demands placed upon the environment by people and commerce can be met with-out reducing the capacity of the environment to provide for fu-ture generations. It can also be expressed in the simple terms of an economic golden rule for the restorative economy: leave the world better than you found it, take no more than you need, try not to harm life of the environment, make amends if you do. [HAWKEN] Principles that seek to establish a dynamic balance between economic, environmental and social priorities, and to improve or maintain human and ecosystem well-being together, both now and into the long-term, locally and globally. [NRTEE]
• in detail • see also: Sustainability definitions by Gro Harlem Bruntland XlnkS652

On the 10th Anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit, the Sierra Club of Canada and the Kingston Chapter of the Society for Conservation Biology held a national environment conference to address the state of our natural and human environments. Held in June 2002, at Queen’s University in Kingston (Ontario), five days of plenary presentations and over fifty workshops were attended by approximately 500 delegates from across Canada and around the world. To view the proceedings online, please see the Sierra Club Web page. Building on that success, Sierra Club of Canada will host the second People and the Planet conference in Calgary, Alberta, from May 14-16, 2004. Participants at the conference will include scientists, university professors, physicians, lawyers, native elders, authors, farmers and artists, as well as representatives from industry, all levels of government, and local, national and international citizen groups. Our main purpose is to derive solutions to major environmental problems by examining their root causes: fundamentally, problems with western values. Topics examined will include climate change, water, biodiversity, food safety and sustainable agriculture, spirituality, social justice, and many more. Please view the link below to People and the Planet for a full description of the event and sponsorship opportunities.
weblink: Sierra Club Webpage • from: Sierra Club of Canada • document: People and the Planet • in detail XlnkS64C XlnkC18E8

Robert McNamara was US Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam war, a position held today by Donald Rumsfeld. During the Vietnam In 1995, Robert McNamara published In Retrospect, the first of his three books dissecting the errors, myths and miscalculations that led to the Vietnam War, which he now believes was a serious mistake. “We were wrong, terribly wrong. We owe it to the future generatrions to explain why”. Nine years later, most of these lessons seem uncannily relevant to the Iraq war in its current nation-building, guerrilla-warfare phase. See 11 lessons below.
• in detail XlnkS63F