Our population on Earth is growing exponentially. Although we have advances in technology and medicine to thank for this, we have come to face a new pressing issue: how are we going to accommodate everyone on our planet? Our infrastructure is straining under the weight of our vast population and is desperately trying to catch up. However, our infrastructure is not the only thing that is straining, our resources are too. We are faced with a very complex and often contradictory problem of trying to provide for everyone without destroying our environment. So how can we achieve this? Through sustainable development, it is our hope that we are able to tackle these issues and provide an environment that will allow everyone to live, work, and play without causing further harm to environment.
In April of 2005, an article was published in Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development by authors Robert W. Kates, Thomas M. Parris, and Anthony A. Leiserowitz, entitled “What is Sustainable Development? Goals, Indicators, Values, and Practice.” The authors in this article discuss the difficulty and benefits of trying to achieve sustainable development. One of the first difficulties that we face is trying to define what sustainable development should be. There are many stakeholders involved when it comes to sustainable development that we may not see eye to eye on a few core principles. The UN created it’s own guidelines and definition of sustainable development , however, it may be difficult to implement some of these guidelines because it does not take into account the differences in each geographical location. Sustainable development should not be a one size fits all kind of plan. It is important to be mindful of what issues each region faces and create a plan that will best work for the people and environment located there. It can be painful and difficult work, but overall, it would greatly benefit our planet and leave a place that people will be able to still call home.
The second obstacle that we face is trying to meet the essentials that humans need, such as food and energy. In chapter 2 of the Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, it brings up a point of that although there may be resources and services available, there is not equal access to them. Poverty is still a prevalent problem around the globe that affects individuals from gaining the resources they need in order to have healthy living conditions and nutritious food. Many individuals are undernourished, which leads to health complications in the future. However, the solution to this problem is not to just increase food production. It can not be based off of “ecologically unsound production policies and compromise long-term prospects.” One of the proposed solutions to help with reaching a higher level of food security is through employment because it will help with someone’s livelihood. By helping improve livelihoods, we allow poor households to meet minimum consumption standards with an increase in economic development that includes sustainable work opportunities. Also, we are using a large number of resources in order to produce the services and goods that we have in an unsustainable way. This provides a serious environmental consequence because we are quickly depleting our resources and affecting the resources of others.
If every individual on our planet were to consume as much as the average American, we would need 4 Earths. That calculation alone proves that they way the United States is producing its goods and services is severely unsustainable. We live in a world that produces goods that are meant to be dumped within a few years, which leads to an increase of waste production. With the amount of waste created, some people deem it appropriate to ship it off to other countries, who have lower environmental regulations, to deal with it. These countries are then forced to deal with an increase of pollution in their area. The United States is guilty of shipping its e-waste to other less developed countries that recycle these products under unsafe and hazardous conditions at put the workers responsible for this at risk to toxic fumes and chemicals that cause health problems. The future production of products needs to hold itself to higher quality and form of production so that it can help preserve our resources and prevent further harm to individuals in countries over-sees.
Sustainable development may seem like a daunting task, but the benefits that come along with it are well worth it. If we want everyone that comes into this world to be able to survive and have the resources that they need, then we must preserve them and change our high consumption lifestyle into a more sustainable one. We have only one Earth, and for the sake of future generations, we must ensure that we can still call it our home.
