by Andrew Sibley A Titanic metaphor for industry and the natural
world In the spring of 1912, one of the largest ships ever built
left Southampton, England, and steamed westwards towards the
United States. It was the epitome of its age: the height of
luxury, technology, prosperity and progress. It was, of course,
the Titanic, and it was destined to come up against the natural
world in the shape of an iceberg. The ship’s demise forms the
introduction of a highly influential book on sustainability.
“One might say the Titanic was not only a product of the
Industrial Revolution but remains an apt metaphor for the
industrial infrastructure that revolution created…. It [Titanic]
attempts to work by its own rules, which are contrary to those
of nature. And although it may seem invincible, the fundamental
flaws in it design presage tragedy and disaster.” That book is
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by the German
chemist Michael Braungart and American architect William
McDonough. Published in 2002, i