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As the 21st century proceeds, year by year, the social consciousness of the world is being prodded to take actions so that we can continue to live on this planet with more people, and with possibly limited resources. The concept of ‘sustainability’, the ability to live within our means as a world, is becoming increasingly heard in the press and in conversation.
Wikipedia offers the following explication of this notion of Sustainability, proceeding afterwards with a long, exceptionally detailed, well-documented article on the different aspects of sustainability.
Sustainability is the ability to exist constantly. In the 21st century, refers generally to the ability to exist of the biosphere and human civilization. Defined also as the process of people maintaining change in a balanced environment, in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development and institutional change are all in harmony and enhance both current and future potential to meet human needs and aspirations.[www.globalfootprints.org. Retrieved 2 May 2018
A Google® search of the word ‘sustainability’ through the years, starting with the early 1980’s, reveals the dramatic increase in the number of hits in Google Scholar®. the pattern of hits on a year by year basis (Table 1).
Table 1. Number of ‘hits’ in Google Scholar® for the word ‘sustainability’
| Number of citations
Google Scholar® |
| Google® 2019 – 899 million | |
| 2017 | 297,000 |
| 2015 | 523,000 |
| 2012 | 636,000 |
| 2009 | 435,00 |
| 2006 | 252,000 |
| 2003 | 145,000 |
| 2000 | 83,400 |
| 1997 | 34,800 |
| 1994 | 13,100 |
| 1991 | 5,790 |
| 1988 | 2,400 |
| 1985 | 1,200 |
| 1982 | 748 |