“Sustainability” and “resilience” have become buzzwords in recent years, but many people don’t know what either term really means. As an economist who studies environmental issues, I believe an important first step to solving any problem is to define your terms clearly.
Although laypeople often use them interchangeably, sustainability and resilience aren’t the same thing. In fact, resilience isn’t even a single concept. Two influential ecologists have defined “resilience” in two completely different ways.
This might seem like an academic debate over words – and indeed, not all environmental policymakers even know that this conflict exists. But they should. That’s because how we define problems, and come up with solutions, matters.
