Levels of Sustainable Scale
There are many levels of sustainable throughput. Available evidence indicates that up until at least the industrial revolution the level of throughput in the global economy was sustainable. Certainly, the level of hunter-gathers' throughput was sustainable, and considerably lower than the level of the throughput in the 16th centurey, which was also sustainable.
No global ecosystems were challenged by the level of economic throughput until the 19th or 20th centure1. Some levels of throughput provide very little in terms of material goods and services and some provide considerably more. Our challenge is to provide enough material goods for human well being while remaining within sustainable scale. Two conceptual levels of sustainable throughput, or benchmarks, are of particular interest: