The Stone Age did not end because the world ran out of stones and the same applies to fossil fuels like oil, Dr James Bradfield Moody told the 350-strong audience at Flinders University’s annual Investigator Lecture.
While resources in the world are finite, Dr Moody said sustainability will increasingly become the single most important driver of innovation and success for businesses, investors, communities and governments in the 21st century.
(http://www.flinders.edu.au/news/news-article.cfm?newsID=8EC46BEF-E220-1E25-3D42-41351782A270)

It would be an oxymoron to say that our survival is dependent on sustainability!

And I think we’d all agree with Moody that “the next wave of innovation will be resource efficiency driven by sustainability”.

But has anyone noticed an elephant in the room?

For all the innovation and material advancement, who’s promoting sustainability in terms of our spirit? Could it be that human sustainability might ultimately be more dependent on our ability to deal with our propensity for war and violence, greed and revenge, jealousy and selfishness than on the availability of material resources and our cleverness to manage them efficiently?

I would have thought that with expected diminishing material resources, our spiritual resources of faith, hope and love, forgiveness, kindness and generosity, friendship, justice and support for those in need, might become the more critical resources for human survival. (And George doesn’t seem to be doing so well with Iran!)

We cannot take spiritual resources for granted – we have to work on them, exercise them, invest in them.

Let every rainwater tank connection at least be matched with an equally costly connection of friendship with our neighbour!