2011 may be the tipping point that globally shifted all the Pillars of Sustainability. By year-end each leans as precariously as four Towers of Pisa.
First we watched the Environmental Pillar reign tsunami terror on the city of Sendai, followed by the infrastructural meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear plants, sending shock waves throughout the worldwide energy sector.
Before we caught our breath the Economic meltdown of the EU sent shivers of 2008 deja-vu around the financial world, expanding uncertainty and contracting portfolios of wealth.
Simultaneously the Social Pillar caught fire during the Arab Spring, spreading from Tunisia to Egypt to Libya and Yemen and still raging in Syria, the Straits of Hormuz and once again at the gas pump.
Finally the Cultural Pillar Occupied Wall Street and city centres around the world, challenging positions of power with perspectives of unfairness.
Energy, Matter and Information are being recalibrated above, below and around every Pillar. Sustainability itself has been occupied in very new ways.
