What could existential sustainability be? A conceptual study of existential dimensions of sustainability

Abstract

The term “existential” is nowadays used in connection with different kinds of threat, risk and hazard–sustainability discourse included. Loss of certain forms of existence, potential, conditions and values have all been claimed to be incompatible with existential dimensions of sustainability (or “existential sustainability”, for short). In order to clarify the notion(s) of existential sustainability, two recently more discussed concepts–‘existential threat’ and ‘existential risk’–are used for comparison and contrast. With increased popularity comes the risk of conflating uses of “existential” in the sense of the meaning (fulness) of human existence and “existential” in the sense of the very existence (or annihilation) of something. It is suggested that the concept of existential might usefully be pushed in the direction of managing (the risk of) permanent or irreparable consequences related to different levels of aggregation.