Characteristics of sustainability: reflections

A friend writes:

I live across from a park, and just in front of my house the municipality planted a bunch of new plants. The plants were small and people were walking across the plants in order to get to the park instead of using the designated entry points. This of course damaged the plants feeding into the spiral of walking through the plants, damaging the plants, getting into the park at points other than the designated ones.....

Now, one might think that people do not care and that was my first thought. But my wife bought a yellow tape and put it across the place where people were getting into the park and the people stopped going through it!

Now the tape is not a physical obstacle nor an enforceable one. Maybe people are not paying attention, maybe they only need to be reminded, that the fate of the little plants was in their hands and that they could save them by just taking three more steps.

This example confirms that:
- Existing technology is sufficient
- Sustainable development is actually very simple
- It requires a new attitude to combining and multi-use
- Most people have no problem understanding it

and that indeed working to bring these issues to the forefront of our minds is a necessary activity.

So please make a start by involving your friends in

INVENTING FOR THE SUSTAINABLE PLANET