Sustainable Development

The environment is among some of the top issues to be looked upon by the human population in the world today. Sustainability is a word often times used when speaking of this subject. This is a concept represented in the articles “Sustainability” by Christian R. Weisser and “Attention Whole Foods Shoppers” by Robert Paarlberg. Each author addresses the issue in different ways; one giving examples of this issue and the other clearly defining it. Each author is writing to spread awareness of this issue. As overlapping topics, each article has similarities and differences to the other.

The most commonly used definition of sustainable development is still that given in the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), i.e. sustainable development is ‘a process to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’ Sustainable development is therefore about creating a better life for all people in ways that will be as viable in the future as they are at present. In other words, sustainable development is based on principles of sound husbandry of the world’s resources, and on equity in the way those resources are used and in the way in which the benefits obtained from them are distributed (Making Tourism More Sustainable, 2005).

Economic analysis that weighs all costs and benefits of a particular model must include environmental considerations. That is to say, the potential for short-term economic losses caused by conservation in the present, should be measured against the dividends that conservation will pay in the future (Nordhaus, 2007). If the earth is truly our most valuable commodity, then analysis under these conditions should recognize that if a “dollar value” were placed on environmental sustainability, more often than not it would outweigh any initial monetary loss resultant of the implementation of more sustainable practices.

Sustainable development is defined as “Development that meets the needs of the present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (IISD, par. 1 ).

It is extremely important for the modern day economy to remain sustainable. Sustainability is a process that continuously supports the economic systems that currently exist. This also There are four main opponents that are against sustainability: depletions, pollution, population, and migration. These four properties can be extremely harmful against the economy, which results in extremely large issues for whatever country has these problems that become a reoccurrence. In this summary essay, there is going to be a breakdown of the four main opponents that are against sustainability and why they are relevant to the world today.

Sustainability is not a temporary requirement of the ecology .Its permanent necessity of ecology .

“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. (Brundtland Report,

However, when examining environmental sustainability, it does not seem to be the case. When people are faced with knowledge in relation to natural resources that may be sold for personal capital, people are quick to exploit the resource without taking the environment into consideration. For example, it can be presumed that if people did not have knowledge of the abundance of cod in Newfoundland in the 1960’s, the environment would have been thriving in that area to this day. Similarly, a notion that was present in Davis’ article is the tragedy of the commons. This plays a key role when looking at the environment today, in a capitalist world. Furthermore, people are often too caught up in extending their own enterprises to even consider the potential effects that certain acts can have on the environment. On the other hand, there are people who obtain knowledge on something that is harming the environment, yet they do not act on that knowledge or do anything to mitigate the damage. In the modern world and especially western society, people will easily put their needs above the environment from which we live. Therefore, from a sustainability point of view, knowledge is not

Economic –“an economically sustainable system must be able to produce goods and services on a continuing basis, to maintain manageable levels of government and external debt, and to avoid extreme sectoral imbalances which damage agricultural or industrial production.” (Harris, 2000: 7)

Sustainable development is an action plan to save the earths resources for future generations like fossil fuel. It is also an initiative to preserve the environment we live in. The table below shows the progression of sustainable development over years:

Global sustainability is multi-faceted topic and is very complex. However, at its essence, global sustainability is defined as using your resources wisely today to give your children a better life tomorrow. It is the balance between using enough to develop right now but leaving enough for future generations. For example, if we were only looking at preserving the environment and not developing it, we might use none of the resources and leave them to be. But the problem with that is that then there is no resources for us to use. On the other hand, if we were just looking to develop the land, we would use all of our resources, but then there would be no more left for the future. Thus, I want our

The challenge facing humanity today, is to bring our activities into the carrying capacity of the Earth’s supporting ecosystems while improving the quality of life today and for future generations. We live in a world of limits. Our natural resources will not last forever as we have discovered when our forests started disappearing and when droughts limit our water supply. Leaders in the following fields provide the platform for the theoretical discussion of environmental global change. Economies exist within, and rely upon ecological systems for natural resources and ecological economics applies principles of ecology and systems science to the analysis of economic systems. Environmental science studies how the natural world works, how our environment affects us, and how we affect our environment and applies ethical standards to relationships between people and aspects of the environment. Social science disciplines address human interaction and institutions and ethics is a branch of philosophy of moral principles held by a person or a society. Environmental ethics are normative or prescriptive; they are do's and don'ts regarding your interactions with the environment. Since human society clearly affects the environment in numerous ways already, environmental ethics would involve evaluative judgments regarding how humans are affecting the environment; what is good or bad in our collective behavior. Based on such judgments, environmental ethics would also include recommendations

Sustainable development is about meeting the needs of today without over-using the resources for future. It requires the integration of environmental, economic and social priorities into policies and programs[b]. It is different from green growth as green growth does not take social priorities into account which means that green growth is more focusing on improvement of quantity but sustainable development focusing more on quality of human’s life experience.

The actual definition of sustainable development may not be accepted by everyone but what is important is the recognition that sustainable development is about the balance of the connected Es, Economy, Environment, and Equity.

In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) used the term sustainable development to describe their goals, which was defined as “to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (Brundtland 16) Sustainable development is the core value that supports any practice that places equal value on the environment, economics, and equity rather than solely on economics. The idea of sustainable development has been—and still is—subject to major criticism, because it places a limit on the actions of humans in the light of the environment and observes its impact on everyone else. The growth of the human population is difficult as a result of this method, which has some environmentalists challenging the concept of sustainable development. The continued prioritization on economic growth over the condition of our environment, in combination with our population growth may have irreparable impacts on the environment, but there are those who see sustainable development as an achievable goal. Through the use of sustainable energies, along with technology and innovations which change how we make the Earth cleaner, this ambition set by the WCED can be attained.