CitNet's new website

Today on World Environment Day we launch the new CitNet website, honoring the roots of the sustainability movement in that UN conference in 1972 when "environment" began to be taken seriously as a component of global and national policy.

We remember the following year, 1973 as the year of the global "energy crisis" -- not to mention the cluster of ecological catastrophes that were forcing the environment into the forefront of public attention. This was the year Gro Brundtland articulated her now famous definition of "sustainable development" (meeting the needs of the present without harming those of the future). 1973 was also the year Schumacher published his influential book "Small is Beautiful," among other things.

Since that time we have seen more catastrophes, more big international meetings, including the 1992 Earth Summit, more books, more speeches, more concepts, more promises and more awareness of the ecological, social and economic crises and the movement to address the roots and consequences. The movement is to protect the earth and its many communities, to create a new kind of economy and way of life.

There are reasons to be not only skeptical but cynical. It is one thing to write books, give speeches, produce and consume energy efficient products and technologies, and organize global conferences and celebrations. It is another thing to create a truly sustainable society and economy.  That is our challenge and this website is one small contribution towards that goal.