The Unsustainable Sustainability.

Suzi H Theodoro,Othon H Leonardos

doi:10.1590/0001-3765202120181226

Abstract

Over the last four decades, and particularly after Rio-92, discussions on environmental sustainability have expanded and been incorporated in many legal texts, in public policies and in the practices of daily life for a portion of the world's population. Despite this progress, achieving a more sustainable development is a goal that has yet to be realized, mainly due to economies that favor a predatory development, masquerading as sustainable, which turn a blind eye to the social, environmental and cultural limits of the planet's many different regions, and ultimately threatening the continued existence of human life on Earth. The guiding question of this paper is the incapacity of the sustainability model adopted in discourse, in business and in contemporary society. This paper is a test study and questions political ownership and the transmutation of the concept of sustainable development in discourse and daily life over the last few decades. Ultimately, we hope to draw attention to some of the hits and misses of this divergent sustainable development which claims to be modern. Overall, this paper is more about asking questions than finding answers.

Highlights

A large part of the scientific community, intellectuals and idealists who work toward building new methods of socio-environmental justice have realized they have failed
It is important to remember that the concept of sustainability was originally based on, and in conjunction with, principles of ethics
Pierre Chardin believed in a human union within Nature, one which goes beyond togetherness, beyond the workings of a hive, a colony or an anthill

Summary

INTRODUCTION

A large part of the scientific community, intellectuals and idealists who work toward building new methods of socio-environmental justice have realized they have failed. Socio-environmental justice, as two sides of the same coin, which should guide the collective values for a fair and equal society Following this idea, all things share a common origin, making all creatures and beings on the planet interdependent (Chardin 1955). Notwithstanding, given the need to establish a democratic model of development/ coexistence due to the limited natural resources on Earth, many of the perceptions and interests are still subliminal and are rarely shared with society, which could benefit from the benefits or obligations of a successful model This largely follows what Santos (2016) believes which is that when one group proposes to define the reason of existence of another group, which they do not belong to, they might spread arguments which tend to subjugate, oppress or even disqualify the other. The paper is divide in two parts: 1 - Origin of the sustainable development concept and how it became a tool for domination and 2 - How the search for strategic natural resources led to the weakening of the concept

DISCUSSION

CONCLUSIONS