From environmentalism to sustainability

Abstract

Environmentalism is giving way to sustainability in a process that is aided by complementary shifts in economic, social and political arenas. Environmentalism was always a necessary first step. The shift towards sustainability is beginning to take place because the mood of the times is now ready to promote its early stages. However, as we contemplate more fully the fuller significance of sustainability, the very ethos of livelihood and lifestyle enters the frame of enquiry. Livelihood and lifestyle are part of the same set of phenomena defining personal and social identity, and economic well-being. But we can stillask two complementary questions. Are we seriously prepared to metamorphose into a sustainable life style? Can we devise ways to cope by drawing on multiple livelihoods? This will be one of the key issues for human geographers to examine in the coming decade.