Sustainable Development Information

Scheme of sustainable development: at theconfluence of three constituent parts.(2006)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_development

What Is Sustainable DevelopmentThere are many different orgions anddefinitionsof the term sustainable development but in1987 the World Commission on Environment and Developmentsreport calledtheBrundtland Reportis by far the best andis now one of the mostwidelyrecognizeddefinitions:

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present withoutcompromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within ittwo key concepts:

the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the worlds poor, to whichoverriding priority should be given; andthe idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on theenvironments ability to meet present and future needs.

So this all sounds great. Nice andscientific but what does this mean and what needs for ourcurrent and future life conditions are needed in order to accomplish this? Lets think outloud for a moment shall we? We need clean air to breathe and for plant life to exist. Weneedtransportationas well. For the most part these needs will conflict and this is a decisionthat we have to make. Now take your conflicting needs and multiply them by your town/city,state, country, world! How about a specific example. Japans (and mostcountries) need forenergy relies on using nuclear power yet there is a risk to the peoplessafety(and othercountries) ofthosecountries.How do we as a society decide whose needs are met first? Byeconomicstatus?Citizens orimmigrants? People living in urban or in theruralareas? People first world countries overthird world countries? You or your neighbor? The environment or the corporation? Thisgeneration or the next generation? When there has to be a trade off, whose needs should gofirst?These are very complex questions to answer and really they are just the tip of the icebergwhen it comes to the questions that we need

to ask ourselves about sustainabledevelopment. People concerned aboutsustainable development suggest thatmeeting the needs of the future depends onhow well we balance social, economic, andenvironmental objectivesor needswhenmaking decisions today.

It is amazing to see how so many thingsconflict with each other in the short termyet in the long term it works out for thebest. For example, third world growthmight conflict withpreservingnaturalresources. Yet, in the long run, theresponsible use of these natural resources will help ensure that there are resources availablefor sustained growth of these third worldcountriesinto the future.

So if you look at the diagram above you can see that it raises a number of difficut questions.For example, can the long term economic objective of sustained agricultural growth be met if

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the ecological objective of preserving biodiversity is not? What happens to the environmentin the long term if a large number of people cannot afford to meet their basic householdneeds today? If you did not have access to safe water, and therefore needed wood to boildrinking water so that you and your children would not get sick, would you worry aboutcausing deforestation? Or, if you had to drive a long distance to get to work each day, wouldyou be willing to move or get a new job to avoid polluting the air with your car exhaust? If wedont balance our social, economic, and environmental objectives in the short term, how canwe expect to sustain our development in the long term?

To Sum Up What Is SustainableDevelopmentIn other words, when people make decisions about how to use the Earths resources such asforests , water, minerals, gems, wildlife, etc., they must take into account not only how muchof these resources they are using, what processess they used to get these resources., and whohas access to these resources. Are enough resources going to be left for your grandchildrento use and will the environment be left as you know it today?

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It is believed thatthe concept ofsustainable livingbegan in the 19thcentury, long beforesolar panels,geothermal energy, and renewable energywere even thought about. Before anyonewrote books about environmental issues,farmers began to realize that agriculturalcrops depleted the soil, unaware that croprotation was the way to maintain the land.The need for a sustainable developmentbecame more apparent as cities began togrow and resources began to diminish inquantity and value. In [Read More]