Theorizing sustainability in a post-Concorde world

Before its retirement, Concorde was a powerful symbol of technological optimism. As such, and much like the now dismantled US manned space programme, the spirit of Concorde stood in stark contrast to the prevailing pessimism about the human enterprise. Instead of an accelerating modernity and rapid space colonization (as commonly envisaged fifty years ago) we have witnessed a fading modernity with geriatric nuclear reactors, ageing infrastructure and paralyzing public austerity. Using the symbol of Concorde, this article challenges common presumptions about the relationship between modernity and long-term sustainability, arguing that the existing literature on sustainability has underestimated the risks of maintaining an ambivalent stance towards the modern project. More specifically, the article considers the risk that humanity will fall short of developing the technology necessary to break free of its planetary entrapment yet not be able to halt the rate of environmental destruction to a degree that would ensure survival here on Earth.