The impulse of our century has been to substitute earth for god as an object of reverence.
Perhaps Louise Glück would not appreciate my quoting her in this essay. Glück was examining the differences in the voices of T.S. Eliot and William Carlos Williams – specifically the two men’s contrasting orientations to the experience of the physical world and to the concept of Truth (yes, capital T ). She wasn’t writing about environmentalism, or sustainability.
Yet the observation seems remarkably accurate for both the previous and current centuries. Environmental sustainability – as a concept, ideal and movement – has an increasing purchase on professional fields, organizations and governing bodies. Our paper, “ Towards Environmentally Sustainable Digital Preservation ,” could be considered a piece of this trend. While our paper does not argue for environmental sustainability as a supreme organizing value, we do argue that environmental sustainability run alongsi