ESEP Book 1

Goals and Conditions for a Sustainable World

1. Defining Goals and Conditions for a Sustainable World, 7
2. Eco-societal Restoration: Re-examining Human Society's Relationship with Natural Systems, 21
3. Restoration of Urban Waterways and Vacant Areas: The First Steps Toward Sustainability, 35
4. Environmental Monitoring for Sustainable Use of the Planet, 39
5. Sustainability, Ecosystem Services, and Health, 45
6. What Sustainability Is Not! 59
7. Malthus Revisited: Sustainability and the Denial of Limits, 64
8. The Zen of Sustainable Use of the Planet: Steps on the Path to Enlightenment, 77
9. Estimating the Risks Associated with Implementing Goals and Conditions for Global Sustainability, 87
10. Balancing Ecological Impairment and Repair for Sustainability, 99
11. Assimilative Capacity — The Key to Sustainable Use of the Planet, 107
12. Exemptionalism vs Environmentalism: The Crucial Debate on the Value of Ecosystem Health, 114
13. Is the Quest for Sustainable Use of the Planet Unworldly? 123
14. Maintaining the Habitable Condition of the Planet: Balancing Technological and Ecosystem Services, 128
15. An Epic Struggle: Sustainability and the Emergence of a New Social Contract, 135
16. Increased Longevity, Quality of Life, and Carrying Capacity on a Finite Planet, 144
17. Sustainability and the Future of Humankind: Two Competing Theories of Infinite Substitutability, 150
18. World Peace and Global Sustainability, 158
19. Topics for Public Debate: Immigration, Sustainability, and the Precautionary Principle, 171
20. The Role of Reservoirs in Sustainable Use of the Planet, 181
21. Speculative Scenarios: Is There a Way to Use and Sustain Our Planet? 191
22. Environmental Monitoring for the Preservation of Global Diversity: The Role in Sustainable Use of the Planet, 199
23. Sustainability, Exemptionalism, and Exceptionalism, 217
24. Ethics in Environmental Politics and Sustainable Use of the Planet, 226
25. Equity, Fairness, and the Development of a Sustainability Ethos, 236
26. Exceptionalism and Globalism, 245
27. Exuberant Optimism vs the Precautionary Principle, 252
28. Reexamining the "Inherent Worth and Dignity of Every Person" Paradigm in an Interdependent Web of Life Context, 258
29. Monitoring the Restoration of Natural Capital: Water and Land Ecosystems, 271
30. Sustainability and Sacred Values, 293

John Cairns, Jr.

University Distinguished Professor of Environmental Biology Emeritus, Department of Biology

and

Director Emeritus, University Center for Environmental and Hazardous Materials Studies

Address

Professor Emeritus John Cairns, Jr., Department of Biology, Mail Stop 0406, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA

Telephone: (+1) 540-231-8010, Email: jcairns@vt.edu

The book My Quest for Sustainable Use of the Planet describes the increasingly important role eco-ethics and sustainability ethics played in Professor John Cairns, Jr.'s professional career. From a modest beginning they became his primary career interest, as did membership in the EEIU. The book is available at no charge at www.johncairns.net.

Citation format:

Cairns J Jr (2002) Goals and Conditions for a Sustainable World. ESEP Book 1. Inter-Research, Oldendorf/Luhe, Germany. Available at www.esep.de/journals/esep/esepbooks/CairnsEsepBook.pdf

© Inter-Research 2002. The articles in this E-book are reproduced with permission of their original publishers. The E-book may be downloaded, stored, and redistributed (electronically or on paper) free of charge, provided that the contents remain unchanged and that the source is acknowledged. Neither the entire E-book nor any of its contents may be republished, sold or commercially distributed, except with permission of Inter-Research and of the original publishers.

PDF files can be read with the Adobe Acrobat Reader