Sustainability and the Need to Deal with the Contaminated Legacy: A Comparison of Russia and the U.S.

Abstract

Sustainability is a catch term for the different way of life required to counter the ills of the modern era. It encompasses new social and economic as well as ecological relationships. Sustainability theory is, by its nature, hopeful in envisioning an alternative corrective course of action. This volume deals with “the negative legacy problem” that confounds this optimism because we have so profoundly contaminated and altered the earth in lasting ways. Any effort to create a sustainable future will have to deal with this legacy. It is a huge and profound burden faced unevenly by people and non-humans today and that we have left for future generations (see Edelstein, 2006).

Citation

Edelstein, M.R. (2007), "Sustainability and the Need to Deal with the Contaminated Legacy: A Comparison of Russia and the U.S.", Edelstein, M.R., Tysiachniouk, M. and Smirnova, L.V. (Ed.) Cultures of Contamination (Research in Social Problems and Public Policy, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0196-1152(06)14021-1