Economic Reality = Ecological Sustainability
Sustainability and eco-friendly goes hand in hand with “woo-woo,” sentimental, or driven by misplaced emotional empathy rather than logic. That dismissal is convenient but lazy. After listening to Kate Raworth ive been slowly realizing that sustainability is not a moral preference or a spiritual lifestyle choice; it is an economic necessity emerging from a system that has become structurally and foundationally addicted to the emotion of hope and feeling of progress.
The issue is not progress itself, but rather it's consistent unfinished progress that puts us in an endless loop of building, extracting, upgrading, and replacing without ever allowing systems to stabilize... And I for one and so incredibly guilty.
Modern society runs on the assumption that growth is linear and infinite. New technologies, new cities, new products, new infrastructure, all of it requires raw materials, energy, labor, and land. But unlike economic projections, physical resources are somewhat finite. Progress consumes long before outcomes are complete or optimized. We mine, build, discard, and rebuild faster than systems can regenerate, So obviouisly the result is not innovation, it's depletion disguised as momentum and grandiosity.
From a systems perspective, this is simply a feedback failure. In healthy systems, growth phases are followed by consolidation, efficiency, and renewal. In our current economic model, progress rarely reaches completion before the next iteration begins. Roads are torn up before they’re paid off. Buildings are demolished before their full lifecycle is realized. Technologies are obsoleted before their environmental costs are reconciled. Sustainability enters the conversation not as an ethical equal but as a corrective mechanism for a system hemorrhaging resources and morals.
This is where sustainability stops being ideological and starts being pragmatic. Resource efficiency, circular economies, renewable energy, and regenerative design are not attempts to “slow down” for emotional reasons or to project the pain of the earth onto anyone or thing, they are attempts to close loops.
An economy that cannot reuse materials, restore ecosystems, or design for longevity will inevitably collapse under its own appetite.
Depletion, historically, has always won... so this is not about personal values, its about betting against the house- the math is shit.
The addiction to progress mirrors other forms of addiction: short-term reward prioritized over long-term viability. Economies chase quarterly growth while ignoring cumulative cost. Cities expand while infrastructure decays. Consumption increases while resilience decreases. Even our most common mental health struggles could be seen as a reflection, aspect or association of these issues!
Sustainability is often framed as a sacrifice, but it has always been about sovereignty and learning how to build without destroying the very foundations that make building possible.
Here is a shorter version of what inspired this blog, see what you think for yourself.
