Is Sustainable Development Really Sustainable – Theoretical Reflections, Statistics and the Need for Changes

Abstract The aim of the article is to explain holistically the main provisions of sustainable development in the nature-society-human system based on the methodology for analyzing changes in energy flows and the power of socio-economic systems. The authors consider the development of society as a creative process aimed at changing the direction and speed of free energy flows (useful power) in Space and Time. They also consider sustainable development in the nature-society-human system to be consistent with the laws of the global evolution of living nature and the laws of the historical development of humankind. The paper focuses on key questions concerning the new concepts of sustainable development; the methodology for designing the sustainable development using the concept of energy flows in open, non-equilibrium stable systems and power change analysis approach. The results of the main positions of the models and their interpretation are presented based on the statistical data of United States of America (USA) in the period of 1960–2021. One of the most important primary things in order to bring about changes in people's thinking, understanding and attitude towards sustainability issues is their education in different forms – formal education and non-formal education opportunities. Creating an interdisciplinary approach and explaining sustainability as a set of economic, social and ecological factors also play a crucial role in raising public awareness of sustainability issues.