Sustainable Development: The Livability Principles, Bio-Technology, and Biological Diversity - Assignment Example

Sustainable Development TASK Livability principles are regarded as the key is sustaining and developing good and facilitative environments for the community. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working on to create ease of access to the citizens. The departments for housing, water works, and transportation and community services are trying to provide alluring surroundings for the people. Making condensed structures with minimum distances among important locations let people to reach their jobs with ease. Pollution is also reduced enormously due to this sustainable technique. For legislation and funding the programs, the agencies have introduced six livability principles (Assadourian et al, 2012). The livability principles proposed in the suggested article mainly focus and discuss some practical issues for the development of sustainable development. They are mostly related to the day to day problems faced by the citizen and their solutions. Specific and certain points are given in order to increase the productivity and social positivity of the overall developments taking place. For example, the first livability principle is giving emphasis on increasing the transportation choices for the people so that they can enjoy safe, quick and affordable charges of transportation. The transportation has been a very basic human need since a very long time after industrial revolution. Similarly, linking this transportation issue with overall economic factors of the country is also very much important because our dependence on foreign oil and quest to gain more profits in order to meet the increasing expenditures outside our country can cause a bad effect on the fares of the transportation and this in turn has been sustained by the general public. In the similar fashion, the effect of good livability principle in regards to transportation will sort out different practical ways to minimize the green house damage on the environment by the pollution and it must use scientific research. Similarly, the other principle emphasizes to increase the completion and race in the economic arena of development lifecycle so that people can exploit more and more chances of economic growth and can improve their life style by competing and taking challenges at par. It also says that instead of targeting the new communities, the principal of sustainable development must and should resist from the side of existing communities and promote maximum land recycles for the betterment of the environment. There should be no expansion from out of the premises and limits should b well defined before start of any projects. (Jones, 2011) Channelizing federal funding and money from outside the country is the major task. There should be proper policy that must be implemented in order to gain full use of the funding. Federal policies should be leveraged in order to refine the short term projects. The projects should be aligned with the overall goals of the sustainable development essence so that end results can be achieved at the end of the day. There mass investments from the foreign investors and entrepreneurs should not go in vain as this step will decide the future course of investments from all over the world. Neighborhoods of communities play an important role in the sustainable development lifecycle. So these areas should also be taken into account (Devuyst, 2001). The livability principles defined in our course are generic and general level which is mainly addressing collective and ideological issues which are solely responsible for nurturing the direction of the sustainable development in a country and act as a preamble of implementation and deciding critical factors. For example, principles like making use of full potential, democracy, gender important, sustainable population, cooperation at global level, respecting the nature and political sound behaviors are mainly the factors which are discussing the policy making decisions are not specific to an individual as it was in the article. The livability principles are of core importance in both the cases, and the theme is same, which is to speed up and channelize the process of sustainable development. TASK 2 Biotechnology and its usage has been a hot topic for discussion recently. There is not a single doubt about the diverse effects of deploying biotechnology in the field of food and usability products because it can boost the production process of grains and corn materials (Kreuzer et al, 2008). The only threat which has been articulated by the scientist is the health factor and how use of bio technology can badly effect the natural growth of plants. A term generally used called “bio diversity” is the factor contained in plants and animals which provide natural substance of growth. The use of bio technology can harm the biodiversity according to many researches (Bovenkerk, 2012). “Biotechnology potentially threatens biodiversity by introducing a single type of organism, such as a genetically modified seed, across a wide area.” (Andersen, 2001) Dr. Miguel Altieri depicted some of the threats of biotechnology in his famous article published in 2001. He is famous ecologist of the University of California, Berkeley. He supports that use of bio technology diminishes the natural resistance of many plants against drought and multiple diverse effects of nature. According to him, the sole responsible for this dilemma is the use of injecting technology in the bio systems which produces absolutely no resistance among the plants and make them more and more vulnerable to the natural disasters and diseases (Nicholls, 2001). Contamination and unintended expansion of bio technology is also becoming a problem these days. The grains which are genetically produced and placed as the crops are often migrated to the areas where such kind of bio technology is not required. The migration process takes places because of air, water, floods, eating by birds and animals. The results of this unforeseen migration cause the bio technology to effect the bio diverse mineral in the areas where there was no intention to use and deploy bio diversity before. The animals are the main cause of this expansion. The same is advocated by Margaret Mellon, Ph.D., who is currently as the director of the Food and Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. She says that bio technology is not required in many areas and there has been a dilemma occurring throughout the world because with all the benefits, bio technical plants are also lacking the natural substantial level that is required as a primary part of the health food (Pinstrup-Andersen, 2001). Similarly, the able and fettle food when injected with technically made grains, does not give any kind of fertility to the soil. Many farmers intend to increase their production rate so that they can earn more. In the quest of earning more, there is quality lack. Super weed is also a main term that is depicted in the research paper by many scientists. They say that the super weeds can make their way into the soils through water ways and local canal get contaminated of this increasingly hazardous weed. The super weeds can make the grain biologically diverse in many perspectives as well. The bio chemists are seen to increase the use of bio techniques as the main harm to the animal life. The animal life mainly consists of herbivores which live upon local plants. The plants are infected with chemically polluted materials and when they go inside the animal, they cause severe harms to their health and sustainability. Arpad Pusztai, Ph.D. says that bio technology is bringing many disadvantages also. The human natural growth and taste of the vegetables are badly affected when such kind of “manipulated” chemical and herbicides are used excessively in the modern times. The farmers should try to minimize the use of pesticides in order to maintain the taste of the fruits and vegetables. (Strauss, 2006) TASK 3 Changing places, an outreach program is designed to magnify the abilities of the local so that they can think out of the limited box of their localities and bring vast changes around their surroundings. The main objectives of this program is to incite the people to take part in community services, build trust among their neighbors , use the London Olympics 2012 effectively to not only make it successful rather they should use the interpersonal skills gained in this process at a generic level in the society. Improving the environmental and collective qualities in East London has been the main theme of this project. The stakeholders of this project include central Government, the London 2012 Commercial Partners, charitable organizations, different NGO’s bodies and regional bodies. To bring a sustainable and everlasting change in the society is the main focus, and people are frequently trained with these goals so that they can sort out their abilities and exploit the opportunity of the grand event of Olympics. The achievements in this project have been good and improving so far. Around 6,075 people took part in 2009 and mainly they were the locals of Olympic park. Similarly, people are taking immense interest in improving the wildlife and surroundings of themselves in order to live a healthy life with fewer problems. They carried out planting of 3,000 trees which will in turn bring a great improvement in the overall polluted outskirts of the play place and will also help to build a good initial impression on the viewers. Similarly, around 2000 square meters of graffiti were removed by the participants who had been regarded as a great achievement. The graffiti was the main source of unhealthy activities and pollution in the surroundings of the Olympics Park. Nearly 7000 square meters were beautified by the wild flower meadow that became a great habitual and living place for the birds, butterflies and other bees. This is also regarded as one of the major achievements of this project because people are taking part effectively in this project irrespective of the material gains. Transform was the most useful project of this initiative. In this project, the participants targeted those places which were abandoned, unused, ugly, shattered or left out by the people. They decorated them and transformed them into the places which could be used in the local communities in some positive way. The project transform was focusing on not creating anything new from scratch rather training the participants of the project to use the already present .The community all around the places mentioned this activity very positively and the project got very much fame after this useful and productive project. Around 200 members took part in this project. Around 10,000 people enjoyed the benefits of this whole initiative. Such kinds of project bring very much benefit to the people and there is need for more projects for the betterment of the community. The project is very much sustainable in my opinion and these initiatives must be taken into practice in future. The livability principles need to use these practical steps, and people are very much appreciating those steps which are giving them benefits in the real life. The legacy of the project remain good and it is not only limited to the scope of the London Olympics, rather they are having a broad vision at the level of community. (Sustainablecommunities, 2012) TASK 4 Agenda 21 is seeking to bring impact on the global, local and organizational levels in way a way which will impact the environment in an optimal way. Agenda 21 is a comprehensive initiative that will initially focus on localities and then the global frame. The green house gas emissions and intense carbon dioxide emissions in the world forced the policy makers to sit at table and discuss some productive solutions that will put some hindrance in the devastating effects of the industrial dilemma. The key to this project is that different governments from multiple nations will be launching a joint venture in order to sustain a good and healthy environment. Agenda 21 targets the increasing pollution in the world due to immense boost the industrial development all over the world. Intergovernmental efforts are the key for the betterment of the society so that all the nations can be taken on board as they are the victim of the same tragedy. ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, Local Agenda 21 UK, World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) and Framework Convention on Climate Change are some the initiatives that are taken to spread the word at the global level (Schubert, 2007). Similarly, Water 21 is the venture that is being taken on to generate massive awareness among the public about the contamination of water. It also ensures to force the industries at the local level to use the best practices involved in the production and developments to reduce the green house emissions which are the sole cause of devastating pollution. Different conferences at Rio named as Rio+5 then Rio+10 and then Rio+20 were the starting phase of agenda 21 which was to set the initial course of arrangements of this long time project. The Commission on Sustainable Development is the important and official forum that is responsible for taking out important tasks at the inter-governmental issues also and it also tries to remove the misconceptions about agenda 21. The goals of agenda 21 are simple and objective. Agenda 21 seeks to improve the overall capacity of the human beings to become productive in the industrial world as well as try to be nature friendly. After the industrial revolution, much work has been taken on that eventually disrupted the ozone layer, and all the efforts of humans were not relevant for sustainable developments for the purpose of retaining the nature. In this way there has been a disaster in the field of natural sciences and people were enjoying the increase in the productions, but the quality is lacking. Agenda 21, with its global stance will force in the people at international level to regularize a set of legal frameworks that will force the industrial gurus to stick to the principals that are necessary for retaining the nature. For example, Water 21 said that water contamination is the key factor of all the diseases which are taking place mostly in third world. So, industrial people should sort out the way to minimize the contaminations of the local water, so that the vegetables and plants that are living upon this water cannot get acids in them. The animal life is also a victim of industrial dilemmas and agenda 21 also seeks to improve the harmful effects of the worldwide industrial revolution on the animals. The animals are using the water and seeds in the localities where the excessive acidity is spread due to use of herbicides. Agenda 21 will not only spread awareness among the people, rather give them solution to carry out the tasks that are necessary for the development of the sustainable future. (Towards-sustainability, 1992) Similarly, biological diversity, forest pollution and plant health benefits are also the main issues on which agenda 21 is working on so that people can get the complete and correct picture of the ways in which they can make the environment healthy. Agenda 21 is seeking to achieve the goals in the near future and the success lies in the spread of awareness and effective means of communication. Reference List ASSADOURIAN, E., RENNER, M., & STARKE, L. (2012). State of the world 2012 moving toward sustainable prosperity : a Worldwatch Institute report on progress toward a sustainable society. Washington, DC, Island Press. [online] Available at: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=452199.p83 (Accessed 25 Dec 2012). BOVENKERK, B. (2012). The biotechnology debate democracy in the face of intractable disagreement. Dordrecht, Springer. [online] Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2691-8.p302 (Accessed 25 Dec 2012). DEVUYST, D. (2001). How green is the city?: sustainability assessment and the management of urban environments. New York, Columbia University Press. P.120 JONES, T. (2001). Sustainable development critical issues. [Paris], OECD. p.462 KREUZER, H., MASSEY, A., & KREUZER, H. (2008). Molecular biology and biotechnology: a guide for teachers. Washington, D.C., ASM Press.p.8 LONDON2012 (2012) Local Community Work - Sustainability - 2012 Olympics. [online] Available at: http://www.london2012.com/about-us/sustainability/local-community-work/ (Accessed: 25 Dec 2012). NICHOLLS, C. I., PARRELLA, M., & ALTIERI, M. A. (2001). The effects of a vegetational corridor on the abundance and dispersal of insect biodiversity within a northern California organic vineyard. Landscape ecology, 16(2), pp.133-146. PINSTRUP-ANDERSEN, P. (2001). The unfinished agenda: perspectives on overcoming hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation. Washington, D.C., International Food Policy Research Institute. p.166. SCHUBERT, U. (2007). Sustainable development in Europe: concepts, evaluation, and applications. Cheltenham [u.a.], Elgar.p.179 STRAUSS, D. (2006). The International Regulation of Genetically Modified Organisms: Importing Caution into the US Food Supply. Food and Drug Law Journal, 61(2), pp.167-196. SUSTAINABLECOMMUNITIES (2012) Partnership for Sustainable Communities. [online] Available at: http://www.sustainablecommunities.gov/aboutUs.html (Accessed 25 Dec 2012). TOWARDS-SUSTAINABILITY (1992) Agenda 21 - A blueprint for global sustainable development. [online] Available at: http://www.towards-sustainability.co.uk/issues/susdev/general.html (Accessed 25 Dec 2012). Read More