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Identify and explain the pillars of sustainable development
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Quote from the World Commission on Environment and Development: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (Butlin, 1989)
There are three pillars of sustainability. In environmental pillar, it maintains an ecological environment. In economic pillar, it supports a level of economic production. In social pillar, it creates a social well being. All three pillars focus on the indefinite period of time.
Balance of the three pillars achieves the sustainable development but it is merely an ideal condition. In fact, sustainability may not mutually reinforce one another.
One of the examples is the use of biofuels in promoting sustainability.
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Waste management is an important and grave issue. There are many measures dealing with it, like 3Rs, reducing waste at source, recycling industry and incinerator. The strong sustainability means no loss of limited resources. The aim of waste management is to minimize the depletion of resources. But where is the baseline we need to do for it. Nowadays, we can do much more, for example investing on recycling industry and actively participating on 3Rs. But do the governments and public agree? While we do it hard and sacrifice more, does it work and valuable? We need to discuss as it depends on our ethical stance …show more content…
And how we can measure whether they have achieved the standard of sustainability. Sustainable development required many new technologies and new lands reform to help the process, however, in the process, more harm may do to the environment.
According to research, the costs to run operations for sustainable development are much higher than the costs of non-environmental friendly methods. (Michaels, 2011) Especially in developing countries, it is hard for them to spare money to do agriculture and other business in a sustainable way when they are already in leak of money.
As sustainable development required much more work than normal process, for example, more carefully planned proposals with interrelated projects from different departments. It would take a much longer time than the usual process. Therefore, the time cost of these developments would be much higher. However, the gain of these projects might be the same as the usual projects or even less. So, the cost on doing it may more than the gain of it. Result is
Nations focus on growth as a progress for the country. Yet to be sustainable as defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary, a: able to be used without being completely used up or destroyed [or] b: involving methods that do not completely use up or destroy natural resources [or] c: able to last or continue for a long time, also indicates a steady progress. Still sustainable nations are few and far between. Sustainability does not meet the definition for growth desired by nations. Instead many nations see it as limiting economies and hurting the pocket books.
Waste management is the operation of how waste materials are handled. The affair of waste management is relevant to everyone world-wide. Wastes are materials that have no further economic use, and when disposed of, are hazardous to humans and the environment. Wastes include solid waste, liquid wastes, and air pollutants created by humans and cannot be naturally recycled. Current waste management techniques need to be completely overhauled because funding in government budget is not enough to meet standards, landfills are reaching their maximum capacity worldwide, and nuclear waste storage must be handled correctly. Waste management has been a highly thought about complication for global authorities. Due to
9. Smith’s report defines sustainable development as, “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". Smith’s definition is important to consider, because it illustrates that that we do not have to destroy the natural environment to have economic progress.
Many people with the term sustainability and have the misconception that environmentalism and sustainability portray the same idea. Although the tree metaphor is an example of nature, the government works in a similar way in terms of economy and society, as it does with the environment. All three pillars of sustainability are the foundations to a successful nation. Likewise, the three roots of the tree must balance to continue to preserve and grow. Overall, sustainability is a crucial concept as it governs all the things we need for our survival and nourishing values. It is how we use our already scarce resources to balance the economy, environment, and society effectively and thrive in the growing
Sustainability is an “enduring and balanced approach to economic activity, environmental responsibility and societal benefit”- Tata Steel. Sustainability is about meeting the ...
Redclift, M. (2005). Sustainable Development (1987-2005): An Oxymoron Comes of Age. Sustainable Development, 13(4), 212-227.
“Sustainable Development: At its heart, sustainable development is the simple idea of ensuring a good quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come. It is about living within the carrying capacity of the environment so that how we live, work and enjoy leisure activities, which do not harm or put undue pressures on the environment. It is about ensuring everyone has the opportunity to have a decent education, a quality environment that they take pride in, good health and a decent job (n.p, 2014)”
Delving further, we realize that ‘Waste management’ essentially means “the collection, transport, recovery and disposal of waste, including the supervision of such operations and aftercare of disposal sites”. However the latest concepts are of ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle of waste’ over and above waste disposal.
The Sustainable Development Goals are a set of global agendas set by the United Nations to be achieved by the year 2030. They are a continuation of the Millennium Development Goals, set-up through the Millennium Deceleration in 2000 to address the needs of the world poor (Cite UN). The Millennium Development goals included a set of eight simply stated goals with 21 targets and 48 indicators to measure progress (Murray, 2015). Amongst them- reducing child mortality (MDG 4), improving maternal health (MDG 5) and combating HIV-AIDS, malaria and other diseases (MDG 6)- were specifically aimed at improving health. This approach provided a clear and focused direction for many of the stakeholders, to work on achieving these goals. The SDGs are longer
According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, sustainable development is defined as development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. If we follow this definition, it becomes easy to see that the vast majority of the “developed” world has not, and is not developing sustainably. The idea of sustainable development requires us to consider how our action of developing will affect other countries, and future generations. Many people believe in “the butterfly effect”, where the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in one part of t...
Sustainable development refers to not only meet the needs of contemporary people, but also not compromising the ability of future generations to meet development needs.Sustainable development and environmental protection have established contact, not the same. Environmental protection is an important aspect of sustainable development. The core of sustainable development is development, but requires strict control of the population, improve population quality and protect the environment for the conduct of economic and social development under the premise of sustainable use of resources.
In class we discussed what sustainable development meant to us; each group had its own definition. Our group’s definition was that sustainable development is for the long term for future generations, for the basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, and job. The basic will increase over time and our resources will diminish, which why sustainable development is important. Sustainable development is important for future generations so that they end up with a world better than ours. Sustainable development is achievable if society works together to meet everyone’s basic needs and create a better world.
Environmental sustainability is making decisions and taking actions in the interest of protecting the natural world, preserving the capability of the environment to support human life and ensuring that humans use the environment in a way that does not harm the environment. It also questions how economic development affects our environment vice versa.
The 1992 earth summit agreed on the concept of sustainable development as the base standing on the three pillars of economic viability, environmental sustainability, and social equity. However, the pillar of economic has always been stronger compared to the other two pillars. The emerging discipline of environmental economics helps to design a much better base by giving equal importance to all the three pillars. The subject of environmental economics seek to capture the essence of environment and the various services, and intends to offer many sensible way of dealing with changing conditions.
We all know the urbanization rate is an index to value the development of a country. However, though urbanization provides great convenience to some individuals, it also brings about negative effects. Problems such as pollution, overcrowded and the high unemployment appear during the process of urbanization and they are hard to cope with. In face of the sequence of problems, a new way of development ----sustainable development was put forward. Just like its literal meaning, the word sustainability has something to do with continuity. It was used since 1980s and first appeared in Britain law in 1993. Sustainable development can help solve parts of the problem caused by urbanization, including environmental damage, overuse of resources, and natural disasters.