Sustainable Wonders of the World Today's society is definitely in love with lists. From the Guiness Book of World Records and New York Times Bestseller Lists to the latest fleeting pop music countdown or next year's college basketball rankings, lists help to keep things structured and understandable for many of us in an increasingly information-saturated world. Most lists are rather trivial, others are economic, and many are highly competitive, trying to pinpoint one person or album or company as being better than others in some hierarchical order.
Some lists try to rise above such petty comparisons.
According to Ryan, their kindness to the earth and to human health is what qualifies them for a sustainability list. They are accessible to anyone, inexpensive to obtain and maintain. In the overall lifetime use of the item, the amount of energy needed to create and use the item is minimal compared to the energy or benefit it creates. Most are old in concept, though they may have modern variations. Something like them has evolved in many different cultures.