BBA-II_EVM_SustainableDevelop

Sustainable Development

Definitions:

The ability to make development sustainable—to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Environmental Sustainable Development: An environmentally sustainable system must maintain a stable resource base, avoiding over-exploitation of renewable resource systems or environmental sink functions, and depleting non-renewable resources only to the extent that investment is made in adequate substitutes. This includes maintenance of biodiversity, atmospheric stability, and other ecosystem functions not ordinarily classed as economic resources

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The goals expressed or implied are multidimensional, raising the issue of how to balance objectives and how to judge success or failure. For example, 

1.What if provision of adequate food and water supplies appears to require changes in land use which will decrease biodiversity? 

2.What if non-polluting energy sources are more expensive, thus increasing the burden on the poor, for whom they represent a larger proportion of daily expenditure? 

3.Which goal will take precedence?

Richard Norggard, an environmentalist point out that “it is impossible to define sustainable development in an operational manner in the detail and with the level of control presumed in the logic of modernity.”The strongly normative nature of the sustainable development concept makes it difficult to pin down analytically.

Sustainability must involve limits on population and consumption levels. These limits apply to all biological systems. While humans may appear to evade them for a time, they must ultimately accept the boundaries of a finite planet. Ecologist Paul Ehrlich has estimated that humans are now “consuming, co-opting, or eliminating some 40% of the basic energy supply for all terrestrial animals.” Clearly, a doubling of this demand, as might well be implied by a 33% growth in population (to 8 billion) and a 50% growth in per capita consumption by 2050, would leave little room for any other species on the planet.

An ecological approach requires that resources be allocated in such a fashion that they threaten neither the system as a whole nor the key components of the system. For the system to be sustainable it must serve consumption and production objectives that are themselves sustainable. What is important is that an ecological economics of sustainability privileges the needs of the system over those of individuals.

Let us briefly review some of the main themes developed thus far:

1.      The original idea of development was based on a straight-line progression from traditional to modern mass-consumption society. Within this framework, a tension developed between the promotion of economic growth and the equitable provision of basic needs. Development as it has proceeded over the last half-century has remained inequitable, and has had growing negative environmental impacts.

2.      A concept of sustainable development must remedy social inequities and environmental damage, while maintaining a sound economic base.

3.       From an ecological perspective, both population and total resource demand must be limited in scale, and the integrity of ecosystems and diversity of species must be maintained.

   

     In each major area, it becomes clear that true sustainability means a major shift from existing techniques and organization of production.

Agriculture:

Sustainable agriculture consists of environmentally-friendly methods of farming that allow the production of crops or livestock without damage to human or natural systems. It involves preventing adverse effects to soil, water, biodiversity, surrounding or downstream resources—as well as to those working or living on the farm or in neighboring areas.

Energy:

Sustainable energy is the sustainable provision of energy that is clean and lasts for a long period of time. Unlike the fossil fuel that most of the countries are using, renewable energy only produces little or even no pollution. The most common types of renewable energy are solar and wind energy, solar energy are commonly used on public parking meter, street lights and the roof of buildings.

Environment:

Environmental sustainability concerns the natural environment and how it endures and remains diverse and productive.

Transportation:

Transportation is a large contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. It is said that one-third of all gasses produced are due to transportation.

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