Against the Grain
Manuscript 8169
Collecting to the Core — Our Common Future
Carla Heister
Anne Doherty
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This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. Collecting to the Core — Our Common Future by Carla Heister (Retired Forestry and Environmental Studies Librarian, Center for Science and Social Science Information, Yale University; Environmental Studies Subject Editor, Resources for College Libraries)
Column Editor’s Note: The “Collecting resulting report, Our Common Future (also Our Common Future defined and advocated to the Core” column highlights monographic known as the Brundtland Report after the for then-nascent concepts of sustainability works that are essential to the academic li- chair of the Commission, Norwegian Prime and “sustainable development,” describing brary within a particular discipline, inspired Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland) was the latter as an approach that “meets the by the Resources for College Libraries bib- published through Oxford University Press needs of the present without compromising liography (online at http://www.rclweb.net). in 1987 and is recognized as one of the first the ability of future generations to meet their In each essay, subject specialists introduce works to define and promote sustainable own needs.”13 Prior to the publication of OCF and explain the classic titles and topics that development. The report is presented in there is little usage of the terms found in the continue to remain relevant to the undergrad- three parts — Common Concerns; Common academic literature; these terms now permeate uate curriculum and library collection. Dis- Challenges; Common Endeavours — and the environmental studies literature and can ciplinary trends may shift, but some classics outlines a pathway for supporting global be found in thousands of publications across never go out of style. — AD economic interests while sustaining shared multiple disciplines. Usage of the term “sus- environmental resources, insisting that “the tainable development” increased substantially time has come to take the decisions needed to following the publication of OCF. The Web of s an academic discipline, environmen- secure the resources to sustain this and coming Science database was used to track the growth tal studies is relatively young. Its rise generations.”9 of the term from 1981 to June 2018. Here largely coincides with the first Earth A Our Common Future (OCF) has had a “sustainable development” was searched as Day, which was observed on April 22, 1970, strong and lasting impact on environmental a bound term. Again, note that 2016-2018 is and originally promoted as an environmental only through June 2018 so by extrapolation the teach-in by United States Senator Gaylord thought, including the popularization and definitional standardization of the terms “sus- total citations for 2016-2020 should exceed the Nelson. However, a few academic programs, previous five years. events, and publications predated that inaugural tainability” and “sustainable development.” Earth Day, including the environmental studies It has greatly influenced the subdiscipline of programs at SUNY Syracuse and Middlebury environmental economics, along with environ- College; federal legislation on water pollution mental policy studies and the multidisciplinary and air pollution control passed in 1948 and field of sustainability science.10-12 The OCF 1955, respectively; and several influential report is the mortar that made the foundation environmental monographs, including Aldo of both sustainable development and sustain- Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac and Rachel ability strong and permanent. The enduring Carson’s Silent Spring.1-4 The post-World value of OCF can be quantified by looking at War II era ushered in an increasingly global citation counts in the literature over time, with perspective of Earth and humans’ relationship a breakdown of its citation history illustrating to it, influenced in part by the first views of the that its influence has not yet peaked. The data planet from space, a number of environmental referenced here is based on a Web of Science disasters (notably the 1969 Santa Barbara oil (WOS) Cited Reference Search using matches spill), and a growth in international govern- for over 900 citation variations for the Our mental cooperation through the establishment Common Future report. These results show of the United Nations (U.N.). Indeed, the a steady citation growth over the thirty years internationalization of environmental studies since the report’s publication. Note that 2016- can be chronicled partly through the formation 2018 is measured only through June 2018; by of both the United Nations Development extrapolation, the total Cited Reference Search Fig. 2 “Sustainable development” Programme in 1965 and the United Nations numbers should again exceed the previous five Environment Programme in 1972. While years within a three-year span. keyword search in WOS records both of the aforementioned works, A Sand Looking at other impact measures, within County Almanac and Silent Spring, have broad, the Scopus database, the term “sustainable multidisciplinary audiences (each is included development” is found in over 155,000 pub- in at least four RCL subject disciplines), this lications. “Sustainable development” became essay will focus on another influential and sem- a Library of Congress Subject Heading inal work for the field of environmental studies: in 1992 and as of June 2018, over 78,000 Our Common Future, the 1987 report of the non-fiction book records contain the subject U.N.’s World Commission on Environment heading. A keyword search in the Resources and Development (WCED).5 for College Libraries database results in Early international publications that exam- 146 titles with “sustainable development” ine the human-environment interplay include in the item record (only 15 of these from the the Declaration of the United Nations Con- Environmental Studies subject list) and 498 ference on the Human Environment, World titles using the search term “sustainability” Conservation Strategy, and North-South: A (only 38 from the Environmental Studies Program for Survival.6-8 In 1983, the U.N. subject list). The breadth of subject coverage General Assembly established the WCED in these search results belies the impact of with members from twenty-one different Our Common Future and its interdependent nations and tasked it with building on these influence, with monographs from agriculture, preceding efforts by devising strategies for business, education, engineering, health sci- preserving the environment while promoting Fig. 1 WOS Cited Reference Search ences, hospitality, politics, urban studies, and worldwide economic development. The for Our Common Future continued on page 38 36 Against the Grain / November 2018
Modern Times: Trinco — “Ægidius Aucupis, the Erasmus Booklover of the Penguins, was not mistaken; his age was an age of from page 34 free inquiry. But that great man mistook the elegances of the humanists for softness of manners, and he did not foresee the Thibault was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Literature “in effects that the awakening of intelligence would have amongst recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as the Penguins. It brought about the religious Reformation; they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, Catholics massacred Protestants and Protestants massacred and a true Gallic temperament.” Catholics.” I leave you with a few tempting lines from the timeline of the Modern Times: Chatillon — “Every system of government story of Penguinia: produces people who are dissatisfied. The Republic or Public The Ancient Times — “‘I see them,” said Bulloch. They are Thing produced them at first from amongst the nobles who creating law; they are founding property; they are establish- have been despoiled of their ancient privileges.” ing the principles of civilization, the basis of society, and the Modern Times — “No one doubted because the general foundations of the State.’ ‘How is that?’ asked old Maël. ‘By ignorance in which everybody was concerning the affair did setting bounds to their fields. That is the origin of all gov- not allow of doubt, for doubt is a thing that demands motives. ernment. Your penguins, O Master, are performing the most People do not doubt without reasons in the same way that august of functions. Throughout the ages their work will be people believe without reasons. The thing was not doubted consecrated by lawyers, and magistrates will confirm it.’” because it was repeated everywhere and, with the public, to The Middle Ages and Renaissance — “The Penguin critics repeat is to prove.” vie with one another in affirming that Penguin art has from its Sound familiar? origin been distinguished by a powerful and pleasing original- ity, and that we may look elsewhere in vain for the qualities of grace and reason that characterise its earliest works.”
38 Against the Grain / November 2018