Sanderson has an excellent line in his op-ed where he describes Henry Hudson piloting toward the Manhattan shore where the twin towers would stand, and fall, almost 400 years later, his small, wooden ship “cleaving the waters with the narrow prow of history that would one day create New York City in its wake.”
We are still cleaving those waters, but our prow has grown wider and the boat now carries almost seven billion people. Resilience—for nature and human society—is an option, as Sanderson says. But unless we get our act together, so is foundering. For the press, sustainability is indeed the “story of our time.”
For the press, sustainability is indeed the “story of our time.”
This is completely true. But what it means is that, if 'the press' lives up to its responsibilities, it will become the ultimate "bearer of bad tidings," because there is simply NOTHING about the way humans exploit and consume the Earth today that is in any way "sustainable" within a planetary view of that term. And the least sustainable thing about it is the people, whom the press will have to inform of the end of their dreams of "progress."
#1 Posted by Woody, CJR on Fri 11 Sep 2009 at 04:56 PM