As more and more people wake up to the fact that further growth does not necessarily bring improvements in quality of life (and often exactly the opposite), sustainability is going to become one of the key characteristics with which places want to be associated.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that growth alone doesn't guarantee a better quality of life, highlighting the importance of sustainability.
Jonathon Porritt points out a critical insight regarding economic growth and its perceived benefits. He suggests that as awareness increases about the harmful effects of unchecked growth on quality of life, communities and places will prioritize sustainability as an essential aspect of their identity. This reflects a growing recognition that true progress should not only be measured by economic metrics but also by the well-being of individuals and the environment.
In practice
In a conference about urban development, to emphasize the importance of sustainable practices in city planning.
The collapse of the world's banking system and the impending disaster of accelerating climate change are not separate phenomena. They are simply the most visible symptoms of a particular model of capitalism that will bring civilisation to its knees. But those symptoms will not get sorted unless and until we commit to a radical transformation of the way we create and distribute wealth in the world today
We're never going to scare people into living more sustainably! We have to be able to demonstrate just how dynamic and aspirational such a world could be
Any regeneration project that fails to put environmental and social benefits at its very heart is unlikely to achieve anything more than a very short-lived spasm of spurious prosperity
...the core values that underpin sustainable development - interdependence, empathy, equity, personal responsibility and intergenerational justice - are the only foundation upon which any viable vision of a better world can possibly be constructed
The future will be green, or not at all
Active conservation [of gorillas] involves simply going out into the forest, on foot, day after day after day, attempting to capture poachers, killing-regretfully-poacher dogs, which spread rabies within the park, and cutting down traps.
Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal.
Since oceans are the life support system of our planet, regulating the climate, providing most of our oxygen and feeding over a billion people, what's bad for oceans is bad for us - very bad.
The snowdrop and primrose our woodlands adorn, and violets bathe in the wet o' the morn.
If we could feel what we are doing to the Earth, we would stop immediately.
It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want—oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!
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