JIM GLEESON...........Science, God and You

The most accepted definition of Sustainability suggests that what we do must allow future generations to have the same resources and opportunity which we possess. At the rate we are digging up and burning the planet, it is apparent these will not be abundantly available to our children or theirs. We we must at the very least find ways to develop the science, technology and educational knowledge-base that will become the foundation for the next generation's continued effort to transition to sustainability.

The term, Sustainability represents a relatively new field of endeavor, even though some earlier cultures (and even a few current ones) had an intrinsic understanding of the Earth's "not being owned" by the current generation. If we compare it to the field of Integrated Medicine, we begin to understand that what we have today is not "healthcare" at all, but "disease care". Real Healthcare would be much less expensive. So sustainability, once understood, will be much less expensive than our non-sustainable planning, construction, infrastructure, and manufacturing processes. Our construction industry, for example is "Building Code" based. This promotes the construction of buildings which are the worst allowable under the law and, as such, are the most expensive to our society from an holistic point of view. As in Integrated Medicine, we must look at the whole picture (an holistic point of view) to fully understand "cost" and "value".

Jim