To sustain means to maintain, to reach equilibrium, to create an environment whereby an activity can continue into the future indefinitely. To grow means to expand, to push boundaries, and to break equilibrium by surpassing old standards.
Within a closed system, which earth currently is at a practical level for human life, the two terms are contradictory. One cannot continue growth within our little backwater planet indefinitely into the future without running into the limitations imposed by the earth itself. The planet is only so big. The planet can only maintain so much biomass.
After a certain point, if we which to continue sustaining our growth, we must begin (and have begun) transforming other species' biomass into our biomass. The problem with turning other species biomass into our biomass, is that we need the other species to generate breathable air, and soil that we can grow our food in, and to inhale our carbon dioxide, and to run the water cycle and the nitrogen cycle and so forth.
To sustain growth means to be at the bottom of a very large hole with no apparent way out and continue digging.
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