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.
Sustainability is linked to survival.
We haven't asked, and we don't want to. Everyone knows you can't stop progress. Growth is our icon, our mantra, our grail. We sift through the economic indicators, looking, hoping, for signs of growth. Our town could solve its problems, if it could attract more growth.