The Natural Environment and the Human Beings - Essay Example

? Sustainability Table of Contents Sustainability Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Issues Affecting the Human Beings in Relation to the Planet 3 Necessity of Sustainability 7 Different Perspectives & Ideas 8 Individual Responsibility 10 Conclusion 11 Reference 13 Introduction Sustainability is a crucial endeavor to offer the beneficial outcomes for the natural environment and the human beings in both the present and indefinite future periods. It connects to the continuation of social, economic, environmental and institutional aspects of both the human community and the surrounding environment. The sustainability effort should aim to configure the civilization as well as human activity to ensure that in the process the society, the members and the economies would be able to satisfy the requirements while preserving natural ecosystem and biodiversity as well as sustain the same in the long term. Sustainability affects each level of human life starting from the local neighborhood to entire planet. Issues Affecting the Human Beings in Relation to the Planet “In the late 1960s, a second imperative emerged alongside human rights: sustainability” (Vischer, 2006, p.51). It is beyond to mention that the natural resources have certain limited availability and the human beings would have to respect the limits. There are certain issues which are facing the human beings. According to a news piece, the issues have emerged in various areas. Climate Change Global warming has put its increasing impact on the global environment and in turn has led to the emergence of various threatening issues for the human race. The greenhouses gases like Carbon-di-oxide have been responsible for the same and thus increasing the temperature of the planet (Oracle ThinkQuest, n.d.). According to UK prime minister, one of the most significant environmental issues, which have emerged as significant threats for the human race, is climate change leading to growing number of storms, drought, flood and loss of significant species. The depletion of ozone has resulted from the emission of the fluorocarbons, chlorofluorocarbons and some more hazardous gas releasing from industries like manufacturing and chemical factories. This has ultimately caused UV rays to enter in the atmosphere of the earth. Penetration of these rays may lead to severe carcinogenic reaction in human bodies (The Views Paper, 2009). Natural Resources With the enhancement in the life styles, energy consumption has increased with decline in the natural resources. The world is now facing with an increasing crisis for this earth to retain the sustainable supply of the resources. Resource sustainability is a significant requirement in today’s world. The petroleum products, coal and mineral resources have also been intensively exploited to certain greater extent. If the situation persists like this, after a short span of time, all these resources are expected to be non-existent in the near future. Biodiversity Loss Despite of an increase in the conservation efforts the biodiversity state experiences a decline in turn most of the indicators. The significant pressure on the biodiversity has continued to grow considerably. Even, there is no or less indication displaying a considerable reduction in the declining rate in the biodiversity across the globe. The following are the indicators which have raised enough concerns among the researchers and scientists. Even a number of scientists think that the Earth is approaching to enter into the ‘sixth great extinction phase’ (Kirby, 2004). Figure 1: Indicators Displaying Biodiversity Loss (Source: Shah, 2010) Figure 2: Factors Affecting the Environmental Sustainability (Source: Kirby, 2004) The above figures show the increasing amount of population growth with growing usage of cars, consumption of water, paper and fertilizers. With the enhancement in the social lifestyles, there has been huge loss of rainforest, growing amount of carbon-di-oxide concentration. At the same time, the fisheries have been exploited heavily. The destruction of a number of plant and animal species has come as a significant threat to the human community. Pollution The air traffic has increased day by day which has resulted into growing amount of air pollution. In many countries, mainly the under developed ones, there is a lack of appropriate sewage system and at the same time a lack of the awareness among the population. Intensive water pollution has resulted from the release of various hazardous pollutants leading to increased number of water species found killed. With the increasing number of vehicles, noise pollution ha increased due to unnecessary horn blowing, loud speakers etc. Overfishing Overfishing has become another important issue in the recent years. If we look at the available data and information, it can be seen that around 52 % of the fish stocks have already been entirely exploited. Around 20 % of the fish stocks are moderately exploited with around 17 % are over exploited. About 7 % are getting depleted with only 1 % are about to recover from the same. Research studies have revealed that more than 25 % of worldwide fish stocks have been either depleted or overexploited. A considerable part of the fish stocks are entirely exploited and are expected to face impending over exploitation pressure. Necessity of Sustainability One significant incident of economical and ecological threats of overfishing has been seen at Newfoundaland in Canada. In the year 1992, its significant cod fishing industry has come to end when once at the beginning of fishing season, no cod was there. Mismanagement of the fisheries leading to overfishing was the main reason to such disaster due to which around 40000 people lost their jobs and the ecosystem came to a trembled state. Even after some 15 years of that incident, the fishermen are waiting for the fisheries to start again; the communities are still suffering the consequences and did not even get recovered from the shock of removal of most significant economical driver in the region (Overfishing, 2011). These incidents signify the importance of the sustainability development. Sustainability is important from the perspective of a better future. This is a process which would demand the involvement of institutions, people, natural environment and the resources. A number of people think that ‘sustainability development’ is necessary for the betterment of the future. One just cannot think of a scenario where there is no fuel, no fish or just thinking about a planet where the temperature is increasing drastically can create a considerable concern for the human race. Different Perspectives & Ideas In a research paper done by UN sustainability team it has been shown how the environment is related to the other aspects such as human well being, poverty, health and food security. The environment can be thought as the community of diversified ecosystems including the forests, coral reefs, grass lands, freshwater systems and agro ecosystems. Each of the components has its own benefits which contribute significantly to the human lives. In a number of countries a considerable number of people rely on grazing, agricultural activities, hunting, harvesting and fishing for their livelihood. Even, the poor people are majorly dependent on the renewable energy, soil, water and biodiversity to satisfy their requirements. The poor people can lack their access to the safe water, leading to deterioration of their health. The degradation of the environment can happen due to various factors introduced by both poor and rich. Deforestation has been primarily caused by the intensive use of the agricultural lands. Adding to it, the industrialized world has also contributed to the issue by trading in the forest products as well as emitting considerable amount of greenhouse gases, leading to troubled environmental aspects. It would not be wrong to say that all of the food grains are the products of ecosystem services. For an instance, in Africa the bush meat can be seen as the key source of protein while in Asia, the fishes are seen as significant protein source. Thus it is pretty evident that sustainable management of the ecosystem is a requirement to food security (Melnick et. al., 2005, p.3). “Many people think that the expression ‘sustainable development’ is in itself an oxymoron, and that the words contradict one another: that is some think that sustainability and development cannot coexist…” (Munier, 2006, p.16). However, a number of people do think in an opposite way. They feel that both the sustainable development and economic growth can happen together if only that the later one does not come at the expense of exploitation of society and environment. For an instance, intensified exploitation of the resources can lead to impressive economic growth in the present time, but this is bound to decline in the coming future. In the year 1968, Garret Hardin came out with a work which includes the analysis of the resource usage and has commented that the resource belongs to every person. Resources like water, air, minerals, land etc collectively are known as the ‘commons’. Global warming, loss of biodiversity and water scarcity are the significant signs of the threatening environment surrounding the human race. All these put impact not only on the environment, but on the individuals as well as companies’ operational activities. Esty and Winston have claimed that the ‘green wave’ has created two significant and related pressures on the organizations. This actually works in two ways: the organizations are required to align its operation in accordance with the markets and the well being of the planet. On the other side, as the shareholders are getting more and more concerned about the companies are required to follow with the environmental aspects. Poritt and Tang have examined the significance of sustainability issue from the society viewpoint. They have commented that over the last 60 years a mixture of swift population growth as well as massively growing economic activities has transformed the globe completely. However, at the same time, the activities have taken continual toll over the surrounding environment (Grunewalder, 2009, p.1). There have been certain trends in the pollution control, energy conservation, economic development and urban planning leading to attract the attention of the global community. According to Light, “…the hardest and riskiest way to fulfill the sustainability to our descendents is to predicate sustainability as the products of an unending substitution of resources” (Light, 2003, p.355). A restricted and calculative activities and resource usage can keep control over the environmental issues and can lead to sustainable environmental development. Individual Responsibility Every individual has certain responsibilities towards the environment, society, community and future generations. A number of ethical considerations are also involved in this process. I believe that I must act to satisfy my requirements; however, do not do something which can go against the environment and the planet. Excessive use of resources may bring in happiness and satisfaction for a small period; however, situation can be devastated if not treated in an appropriate and controlled way. Everyone must do his or her bit of work to minimize the environmental issues. I put my effort to minimize the energy consumption to prevent the wastage of energy resources. Moreover, I try to use more of renewable energy rather than electricity. I love fish; however, I take care of the fact that I must not eat the rare fish species. I believe in waste management and diffuse the same in appropriate place to keep the environment clean. I am trying to do my bit and I hope that others would do the same leading a healthier environment to live in. Conclusion Environment is the gift of God which has everything which is natural. However, due to the activities of the human beings the environment is one the edge. People sometimes forget the fact that when the surrounding environment would be in trouble, the human race staying in the same, cannot escape the challenges. The natural environment is getting exploited by the human beings to fetch their own benefits and the usage is just growing with the passing days. Undoubtedly, as the human beings have increased their interference into the natural and environmental aspects, the environment has now started adversely responded through a number of adverse incidents like draught, flood, earthquake etc. The government has come up with a number of policies, regulations to minimize the environmental issues. Events like floods, earthquake, Tsunami, drought etc has made everyone miserable and helpless again and again. It’s high time that the human race must look into the issues and should release their responsibilities towards sustainability of the natural surroundings and entire planet. It would not be wrong to say that if the human beings try to cross the threshold limit of environment tolerance, the impact will be intensive beyond any confront. Reference Grunewalder, A. (2009). Integrating Environmental Sustainability Into the Company's Strategy: A Study of Contributing Factors to Overcome Barriers Between Sustainability and Shareholder Demands. GRIN Verlag. Kirby, A. (2004). Introduction: Planet Under Pressure. Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci/tech/3686106.stm . Light, A. (2003). Environmental ethics: an anthology. Wiley-Blackwell. Melnick, D., McNeely, J., Navarro, Y., Traub, G. & Sears, R. (2005). Environment and human well-being: a practical strategy. Retrieved from http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/documents/Environment-complete-lowres.pdf. Munier, N. (2006). Introduction to Sustainability: Road to a Better Future. Springer. Oracle ThinkQuest. (No Date). Global Warming. Retrieved from http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215471/global_warming.htm. Overfishing. (2011). Overfishing: a global disaster. Retrieved from http://overfishing.org/pages/why_is_overfishing_a_problem.php. Shah, A. (2010). Addressing Biodiversity Loss. Retrieved from http://www.globalissues.org/article/787/addressing-biodiversity-loss. The Views Paper. (2009). Environmental Issues and Human Beings. Retrieved from http://theviewspaper.net/environmental-issues-and-human-beings/. Vishcer, L. (2006). Human Rights and Sustainability: Two Con?icting Notions. Retrieved from http://www.koed.hu/sw249/lukas.pdf. Read More