“Sustainability” vs. Sustainable Ambiguity

Have you noticed the proliferation of phrases like “sustainable product” or “sustainable business” or “the sustainable university”?

It seems everyone and everything nowadays is aiming to sustain itself as if it were intrinsically a good thing to be sustainable.

But “being sustainable” is not necessarily the same as “promoting sustainability.”

In this post, I discuss the way in which the overuse of the simple word  “sustainable” without the “-ity” at the end can be dangerously ambiguous  and can actually hinder sustainability-thinking, sustainability education, and the  sustainability movement.

This rhetorical practice may, in fact, promote sustainable ambiguity.

 

The rhetoric and economics of veterinary health care (PART 2)

Our dog the day after his surgery

When our dog broke his leg and we paid for costly surgery, the veterinary emergency communication described in my previous blog entry was only ONE dimension of our experience.  What about our communication among family members and friends, and our own reasoning about the cost and the ethics of our decision?

We have had many conversations, emails, and debates about whether it was right or wrong for us to spend this much money on our puppy.

I am sure many among them are thinking of one fact — we have no children.

So the reasoning goes, we must have an “unhealthy” love for our pet. That’s a common sentiment out there…