NJIT's Maurie Cohen Publishes New, Timely Guide to Sustainability
Encompassing everything from electric cars, meatless diets and the compostable cups we find at Starbucks, to big ideas of economic and social equality, the catch-all buzzword “sustainability” has taken on a life of its own over the past few decades — but what does it mean today?
Maurie Cohen, sustainability studies professor and chair of NJIT’s Department of Humanities, has recently distilled his more than 20 years of expertise in the field and put forth a new, accessible introductory guide to the ever-broadening topic.
Cohen’s eighth book, Sustainability, offers readers a 200-page primer tackling everything from the concept’s origins and landmarks in its evolution, to explanations of past and ongoing science in the field, to what the face of sustainability policy and practice might look like in a post-COVID-19 world.
The book was recently published and made available in all formats by Polity, joining its “Short Introductions” series.
“The invitation to write this book gave me an opportunity to assemble teaching materials that I have developed over my career at NJIT," said Cohen. "It is sort of ironic, but we were one of the first universities in North America to offer students instruction not just in the technical challenges of sustainability, but also opportunities to systematically study the complementary social, political, and cultural aspects that are relevant to the task.”
Tracing sustainability back to land-use practices in the 1800s, Cohen notes a more modern idea of “sustainable development” bridging environmentalism and humanitarianism arrived only relatively recently with the U.N.’s landmark Brundtland Report in 1987: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Sustainability brings readers up to speed on the progress and many persistent challenges in the field since: Developed and developing countries have formed divergent sustainability agendas while progress toward global targets such as the U.N.’s 17 sustainable development goals have remained difficult to clearly measure. Cohen also adds that over this time, too much emphasis has been placed on developing technological solutions, such as greener cars and buildings for example, rather than “reinventing political institutions, social practices, and cultural norms” required for a true transition toward sustainability.
The book explores how these societal dimensions of sustainability could potentially change, particularly given the unintended consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic — a period that has brought global greenhouse gas emissions down roughly 2.4 billion tons from 2019, the largest decline on record.
Ultimately, Cohen says that the idea of sustainability is “about formulating responses to urgent issues, but it is also devoted to navigating uncharted waters.”
Recent years have seen developments such as potential “Green New Deal” pandemic recovery plans, dramatic reductions in consumer spending and oil consumption, changes for many in work/life balance with less business commuting and travel, and other lifestyle trends towards minimalism during lockdown restrictions.
Cohen notes that recent months “have enabled people to experience what life would be like, roughly speaking, if we were really serious about the notion of one-planet living or intent on holding the rise in average global temperature to the 1.5ºC threshold that climate scientists urge as necessary to prevent catastrophic harm.”
For more about Sustainability, visit here.
