But indigenous people everywhere have prophecies that when the old growth forest is gone, the planet will die. Because the old growth is like the native elders, it contains the wisdom of the entire biosphere. A cyclical , rather than a linear economy, can cut down our requirements for raw materials. Industries have to use each other's wastes. We need to reduce, reuse, recycle and refuse at every level.
Sustainability means knowing the true cost of manufacturing an item.
Such includes its damage to the environment. If the true cost of an aerosol can had been calculated, it would never have been made in the first place. Sustainability depends not just on the continuous development of new technologies, but the development of green technologies. The German experience suggests that green , clean, efficient technologies, imitating nature's ways, are actually cheaper . We are either degrading the planet or restoring it.