Secondly, Sustainability science is a new field in search of understanding the fundamental interactions between nature and society (Kates et al. 641). There are many useful ways of measuring anthropogenic impact. We can measure ecological footprints by an assessment of some share of global resources that are needed to support a particular type of lifestyle. We can measure specific things such as our individual carbon footprint or individual water footprint. Or we can use broader impact measures to better understand the collective impact of certain forms of social organization, modes of production, or the alteration of the natural landscape for the construction of population centers. Equally important is the assessment of the numbers of people the resources of the Earth or some specific locale can sustain. "Producing more food from the same area of land while reducing the environmental impacts requires what has been called sustainable intensification" (Reaping). Substitutes for the current inventory of natural resources can be discovered or invented, no one, to our knowledge, has suggested that substitutes for ecological services - such as pollination, nitrogen fixation, water purification, and so on can be invented. Indeed, some ecologists and conservationists have pointed out that it is preposterous to suppose that engineers can devise artificial substitutes for the ecological processes and functions in the economy of nature that provide free services to the human economy. Violence is a massive social cost incurred in some societies because of inadequate investment in social capital. Violence and social breakdown can be the most severe constraint to sustainability. .
Lastly, "Sustainable development is about meeting the needs of today without compromising the needs of future generations. It is about improving the standard of living by protecting human health, conserving the environment, using resources efficiently and advancing long-term economic competitiveness.