It does not grow. The same must ultimately be true of the human economy. I thought they were making a fuss over nothing. I feel more a part of the future of humanity than the future of man. Words make a difference.
Words exclude or include, they wound or heal, they clarify or obfuscate or disguise.
They set up patterns in our minds, and those patterns cause us to act, or not. But it's not a word you hear in the news. It is untranslatable into German, Russian, and many other languages. The ability to sustain, to keep going, to provide for the long term. In practical terms sustainability means not cutting a forest faster than it grows, not pumping groundwater faster than it recharges, not catching fish before they've had a chance to breed, not dumping wastes faster than nature can absorb or recycle them.