Jan's perspective

Après nous...

Mathematics is the most ‘sustainable’ of all the sciences – after all, once a proof, always a proof. Occasionally, a more elegant or concise proof may be found, but the truth does not become any truer as a result. Compare this to physics, for example, where the sun revolved around the Earth for centuries, only to suddenly become the centre of a later model. Similar principles also apply to medicine, where hundred-year-old treatments and medicines are seldom still in use today. Novels, on the other hand, can easily withstand the centuries, though the language may be less enduring than we think (not to mention the spelling). Mediaeval works of theology still provide inspiration today. However, faith is waning.

Aside from mathematicians, all scholars therefore question the ‘sustainability’ of their disciplines, and yet its importance for the world refuses to take root. The majority view seems to be similar to the one attributed to Madame de Pompadour, who was famously quoted as saying Après nous, le déluge, or ‘After us, the flood’. There will come a day however, when the quote will no longer be applicable, when a whole generation will need to start swimming and pray that evolution will soon supply them with gills.

Looking around, I can identify three camps in the sustainability debate: the indifferent, the fanatical and those suffering from sustainability-burnout. This first group is the largest, the second the smallest and the third the most dangerous. They are the ones who use an article on global warming to light the fireplace, and then sit beside that very fire to read an interview with Dutch TV personality Patty Brard in a different magazine. Similarly, the world's water shortage is something we can take our time thinking about in the shower, right? After all, that’s where we get our best ideas.

Only after much humming and hawing did I admit to belonging to this latter group. ('Really, a whole issue on sustainability?'). I should take the train more often, eat less meat, install solar panels – I know, I know, I get it already. Tomorrow, I promise. Laziness is a tough habit to break.

It’s time to start a debate. A debate with the indifferent, but – perhaps most importantly – with ourselves, and of course with the fanatics as well. What we need is a new name for the problem, one that will snap us out of our reverie. As a term, ‘sustainability’ has passed its use-by date.

Jan Beuving

Jan studied at Utrecht University for nine years, completing a Bachelor's programme in Mathematics (2008) and a Master’s programme in the History and Philosophy of Science (2009). After that, he became a comedian and cabaret artist. See janbeuving.nl for his performance schedule.