What Sustains You?

People

What Sustains You?

“Without information you can’t get anywhere.”

What Sustains You?

Despite the increased popularity of the use of the term "sustainability", the possibility that human societies will achieve environmental sustainability has been, and continues to be, questioned—in light of environmental degradation, climate change, overconsumption, and societies' pursuit of indefinite economic growth in a closed system.

Sustain can mean “maintain", "support", or "endure”. Since the 1980s sustainability has been used more in the sense of human sustainability on planet Earth and this has resulted in the most widely quoted definition of sustainability as a part of the concept sustainable development, that of the Brundtland Commission of the United Nations on March 20, 1987: “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Whats behind? What’s supporting the future endeavours?

Our home planet is only a tiny part of the vast cosmic tapestry. A starry fabric of worlds yet untold. Those worlds in space are as countless as all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the Earth. Each of those worlds is as real as ours.

In every one of them, there's a succession of incidence, events, occurrences which influence its future. Countless worlds, numberless moments, an immensity of space and time. And our small planet, at this moment, here we face a critical branch-point in the history. What we do with our world, right now, will propagate down through the centuries and powerfully affect the destiny of our descendants.

It is well within our power to destroy our civilisation, and perhaps our species as well. If we capitulate to superstition, or greed, or stupidity we can plunge our world into a darkness deeper than time between the collapse of classical civilisation and the Italian Renaissance. But, we are also capable of using our compassion and our intelligence, our technology and our wealth, to make an abundant and meaningful life for every inhabitant of this planet. To enhance enormously our understanding of the Universe, and to carry us to the stars.

4.

Sustainable ||interview series

.5

This publication is an interview series asking people what is it that sustains them both mentally and physically on a personal level as they go about their day to day lives.

What Sustains You?

6.

Sustainable ||interview series

.7

This publication is an interview series asking people what is it that sustains them both mentally and physically on a personal level as they go about their day to day lives.

Achieving sustainability will enable the Earth to continue supporting human life.

We’re interested in what motivates you to more, and do better? What keeps you excited? What do you strive for? Where do your ideals lie? What sustains you, as a person? What gets you out of bed? What gives you a sense of peace, meaning and purpose in everyday life? What keeps you going when times are tough? What gives you the strength to face moments of crisis or despair?

Where do your beliefs lie? What informs your decisions? How do you spend your time? Where are your values rooted? What gets you going?

1.

The first interviews took place during a visit to the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, Wales.

Q. A.

Q. A.

Q. A.

Q.

So what sustains you, in your every day?

Hmm, what sustains me? Um, the necessary community is an idea I keep coming back to a lot. Like, this idea of the collective being a much wider idea than the collective of humans as a species. The collective is bigger. And I try to feel in communication with all these other physical aspects of this collective. So starting from like minerals to animals, to plants and the wind.

So whole systems? Things working together?

Yeah. Daily experimentations in approximation to some sort of idea of what the necessary community might look like.

So we’re talking about the future?

Every day. Yeah, the future is sort of a build up of all of that. I mean that’s how, in my day to day life I merge work and play, light and dark, soft and hard.

Very interesting, thank you for your answer.

Curator with responsibilities for managing the artists in residence based within the Centre for Alternative Technology.

8.

The Collective Being a Much Wider Idea Than The Collective of Humans as a Species.

What Sustains You?

Ariana

Sustainable ||interview series

Would I be able to ask you what sustains you?

C.

Ah, food, a few drinks, and running. That’s what sustains me.

Q.

Okay, how about mentally? What excites you? What keeps you going?

C.

Q. C.

At the moment it’s things that we take for granted, a wealth of communication really. How small things like a game of table tennis and how this can develop into something bigger through conversation, it’s a way of seeing the bigger picture.

So, people and connections sustain you?

Yeah, if we don’t do it, no one else does.

Carlos

Acting artist in residence at the Centre for Alternative Technology.

Q.

2.

.9

Food, a Few Drinks, & Running.

As well as People & Connections

3.

What Sustains You?

Q. J.

So, Jane. Could I ask you what sustains you?

The natural world around me. The sheer delight of the intricacy and interdependency and the absolute beauty of many of the structures and systems that surround us.

Jane

Owner of an organic farm in Machynlleth, as well as an Equestrian Trainer and Artist.

H.

Q. H.

Q. H.

Would I be able to ask you what sustains you?

Ah, I need time to think about that. What sustains me?

Okay.

What sustains me? Finding things interesting and overcoming difficulty.

Okay, nice answer.

Physically I would probably say my iPad. The latest one is really very good. I would forget things to quickly. I have systems of recording it so I don’t forget.

Retired business man, Engineer and Inventor.

10.

Overcoming difficulty & the Natural World.

Q.

Hubert

Sustainable ||interview series

4.

.11

The thought of Experiencing new Experiences.

Q.

A.

Q. A.

Okay I need to ask you a question. What sustains you in your every day? What do you strive for, what keeps you going?

Porridge. That definitely sustains me in the morning.

It definitely keeps me going.

Okay, what about mentally?

That’s a though one, I mean I’m not in the best mental shape at the moment.

Q.

I can’t really answer it my self, I know it’s a hard one.

A:

I mean, ideally, the thought of experiencing new experiences.

A.

Okay Yeah, and just enjoying being alive.

Aneurin

A Life Guard and swimming tutor

Q.

What Sustains You?

12.

Sustainable ||interview series

.13

5.

What Sustains You?

Q.

So what sustains you? What gets you out of bed?

R.

What gets me out of bed? I do an hour of meditation in the morning.

Q. R.

Q.

R:

What kind of meditation?

It’s just a kind of stillness at the moment, but it’s a definite kind of feeling in the body and feeling the sensations in the body. So I don’t know as far as actually getting me out of bed, but certainly that’s something I need to do before I consider sort of getting up and facing the day.

Okay, That sounds really interesting. I’ve not heard of this before. So could I ask more what you need to do to sustain your self mentally? Of course meditation is a large part of mental fulfilment, but what sort of ideals do you have, do you have ideas or feelings that sustain you from the day to day?

What keeps you going?

It’s a drive; It’s not a material question is it.

Um, I mean that’s a good question. I guess I have a strong desire to engage or to at least ask questions.

I’m studying a post-grad at the moment.

Masters student at Aberystwyth University. In Politics, Media and Performance.

14.

Rhys

Sustainable ||interview series

Q. R.

Q.

A Strong Desire to Engage or to at Least Ask Questions.

R.

Q.

.15

Okay, what’s that in?

So it’s in politics, media and performance. Interdisciplinary with my old department of international politics and the theatre film and television studies.

So I guess, going back to the question. I guess a key thing for me is asking questions as opposed to making assumptions.

Okay.

That has a huge impact on how I perceive the world and how I engage with the world I suppose. It’s how I kind of break down everything to a level where I’m not just unconsciously participating, I spent so much of my life doing that, and I hit a point where I kind of said to my self, I don’t want to do this any more, I cant do this, I cant sustain my self in this way, just kind of going through with my eyes shut. And just kind of allowing stuff to happen to me, I found I needed to kind of actively engage with it.

Yes, I can understand that. Very nice to meet you, thank you.

6.

What Sustains You?

things that sustain me...

Air & Discovery!

Q.

S. Q.

okay, so for my final year I’m doing a project on sustainability. I would just like to ask you, if you could, What sustains you?

What sustains me? Aaaah, um.

More your mind, not the body.

S.

Ah, so more your mind less your body. Because the first word that came to mind was Air.

Q.

Haha, yes. So what keeps you going, what do you get up in the morning feeling? Sorry it is a hard question.

S.

Q.

Okay, let me think. So, things that sustain me.. Discovery.

Very good, nice answer. Thank you.

Sergio Architect, Lecturer and Researcher at Welsh School of Architecture.

16.

Sustainable ||interview series

Q.

So, what sustains you as a person?

Z. Q.

.17

Love.

Haha, okay, what do you need to get you out of bed, what do you need in your life.

Z.

Food is a good one, like I’m obsessed, what kind of things do you mean?

I mean mentally, what keeps you going? I can’t really answer it my self.

Z.

Um, I don’t know. Sort of like looking for better, self-improvement?

Q.

Okay, so that would end in fulfilment.

Z.

Zoe

Yes, cheesy. Haha.

Level two sustainable energy management student at the Centre for Alternative Technology.

Q.

Love, Food & Self-Improvement

7.

What Sustains You?

18.

Sustainable ||interview series

.19

What Sustains You?

Life in the balance.

We are hugely inquisitive resilient and vibrant as a species. At this point in time we are the most developed conscious beings we are aware of. Our ability to question, understand and draw meaning from what is around us is by far our greatest asset and we have come a long way.

However the universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition. We act like butterflies who flutter for a day and think that it's forever.

If we keep on with business as usual, the Earth will be warmed more every year; drought and floods will be endemic; many more cities, provinces, we shall face the biggest starvations in human history and whole nations will be submerged beneath the waves - unless heroic worldwide engineering countermeasures are taken. In the longer run, still more dire consequences may follow, including the collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet, and the inundation of almost all the coastal cities on the planet.

20.

2014

.21

Those who are sceptical about carbon dioxide greenhouse warming might profitably note the massive greenhouse effect on Venus. No one proposes that Venus’s greenhouse effect derives from imprudent Venusians who burned too much coal, drove fuel-inefficient cars, and cut down their forests. My point is different. The climatological history of our planetary neighbour, an otherwise Earth-like planet on which the surface became hot enough to melt tin or lead, is worth considering — especially by those who say that the increasing greenhouse effect on Earth will be self-correcting, that we don’t really have to worry about it Anything else you’re interested in is not going to happen if you can’t breathe the air and drink the water. Don’t sit this one out. Do something.

We are currently faced with mass extinction, never experienced by the human species before. We are outgrowing our boots. The actions taken now will have drastic effects upon the further proliferation of the entire human species.

Lets keep it going.

Sustainable ||interview series

People

Joshua Hayes Davidson

www.joshhd.co.uk