Now Playing: The Sustainability Con

[Geee]

American Spectator:


Although the issue of "sustainability" has been around a while, recently it has grown in popularity and influence. The way it's happening follows an all too familiar pattern.

There are several common ingredients in how the left enlarges its control over our lives. The first is the selection of some aspect of reality -- global warming, carbon footprints, population growth, inequality, diversity, for example. The second element involves designating the selected aspect of reality as a crisis. The third step is to explain that the only way to avoid Armageddon is by reducing everyone's freedom and by giving more centralized power and control to those who understand the magnitude of the crisis. The rest of us are told that our freedoms are a luxury we simply can no longer afford.

Another common element of the process is defining the crisis as ambiguously as possible. Ordinarily, a desirable characteristic of a definition is that it draws a bright line between what is included and what isn't. Clarity, however, is contrary to the objectives of the crusaders -- in regard to defining the problem, the slipperier the better. For example, climate change (or climate disruption) beats global warming. Global warming is too quantifiable in comparison to climate change. No one is quite sure what "climate change" is or isn't or how it can be measured. Sustainability is even more ambiguous than climate change and thus has more sustainability as a ruse.

Ideally the designated crisis is as expansive and open-ended as possible. A vague, loosely defined crisis provides politicians and bureaucrats with what amounts to a blank check or a no-limit credit card, a credit card where someone else gets sent the bill. A problem having no clear definition is a problem without borders.

At Arizona State University you can get a B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in sustainability. ASU has an entire "School of Sustainability." The school's website offers several answers to the question, "What is sustainability?" Here are four of the answers they offer:

"Sustainability is a concept with as much transformative potential as justice, liberty, and equality."

Michael Crow
President
Arizona State University

"Sustainability is larger than one person, one company, or one country. Its scope, scale and importance demand unprecedented and swift solutions to environmental protection and other complex problems."

Julie Ann Wrigley
President
Julie Ann Wrigley Foundation

"Sustainability is living in harmony with our social and natural environment, based on a sense of justice and equity."

Sander van der Leeuw
Dean
School of Sustainability

"Sustainability is a process that engages every discipline to provide dynamic solutions to complex problems."

Brian McCollow
Student
School of Sustainability

Are you clear now on what sustainability means and why a "School of Sustainability" is of paramount importance?

[RandyM]

Sustainability is an obvious moneymaker. Universities like ASU will take OUR taxes to provide degrees in Sustainability to the next crop of Occupiers.