What is Sustainability?

Take it as a given that the earth, left to its own devices, is a sustainable system. However, human activity, over the past two centuries, is now threatening our continued well-being. The founder of The Natural Step gathered an international network of scientists who have unanimously and publically concluded that human society is damaging nature and altering life-supporting natural structures in fundamental ways.

To become sustainable we should follow 4 principles:

	Stop extracting substances from the Earth's crust.		Stop polluting the earth with man-made chemicals.
	Stop destroying the Earths natural resources.		Can't undermine our own needs for survival.

Ultimately, a sustainable society need not stop using or creating products that are necessary for our well-being and survival, but merely use, create and return to nature products and materials at a rate that nature can handle while not preventing people from meeting their own needs.