Sustaining earth

SC.912.L.17.20

What is Sustainability

Sustainability is an attempt to provide the best outcomes for the human and natural environments both now and into the indefinite future

It is intended to be a means of arranging civilization and human activity so that society, its members and its economies are able to meet their needs and express their greatest potential in the present, while preserving biodiversity and natural ecosystems, and planning and acting for the ability to maintain these ideals in a very long term

Sustainable Development

The term “sustainable development” was adopted by the Agenda 21 program of the United Nations

The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development expanded definition identifying the “three overarching objectives of sustainable development” to be:• eradicating poverty• protecting natural resources• changing unsustainable production and consumption patterns.

Population Growth

One of the critically important issues in sustainability is that of human overpopulation combined with human lifestyle

A number of studies have suggested that the current population of the Earth, already over six billion, is too many people for our planet to support sustainably at current material consumption levels (current lifestyle)

Human Lifestyle

Consumption: energy consumption=burning fossil fuels=pollution

Waste production: solid and sewage=more landfills and less space

Habitat destruction: deforestation, slash & burn, fragmentation=pollution and loss of biodiversity

What can you do? Change your lifestyle! Reducing our consumption to reduce global

warming Smarter shopping Discussing climate change with others Recycling to reduce global warming Energy efficient transport Protecting and planting trees Energy efficient products Using renewable energy to prevent climate change Carbon offsets to reduce global warming.