We hear a good deal today regarding 'sustainability', by which is meant 'the ability to maintain or support a condition, process, or system over time, defined by meeting present needs without compromising future generations, balancing environmental health, economic viability, and social equity (the three pillars) to ensure long-term thriving for people and the planet.' 

I think the term and its purported intentions are laudable. 

As is the case so often however, the devil is in the interpretation. 

For, as the wonderful economist and public intellectual Thomas Sowell is fond of pointing out, life is a series of tradeoffs.

Who decides and how tradeoffs should be made is therefore the important consideration.