Can Sustainability Be Measured - Coursework Example

Can sustainability be measured? I. Introduction A commission dubbed as World Commission on Environment and Development was created by United Nations to provide a global agenda for change. The commission was composed of 21 nations and was chaired by the then Norwegian Prime Minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland. The Commission came up with a report entitled Our Common Future. Working on the premise of a need to alleviate poverty and protect the environment, the report introduced the concept of sustainable development. The report defines sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own need (G. Burtland). Sustainable development has two key concepts: (a) the concept of needs and (b) the idea of the boundaries of the status of technology and social organization (i.e. policy making) on the environment’s ability to meet the present and future needs. The Commission recognized the need to overhaul political, social, technological and even cultural components of the global system to commence sustainable development. Thus, the report enumerated seven concrete aspects of strategic imperatives to sustainable development. These vital aspects are: to revive growth,; change the quality of growth; meet the essential needs for jobs, food, energy, water, and sanitation; ensure a sustainable level of population; conserve and enhance the resource base: reorienting technology and managing risk; and merge environment and economics in decision making (G. Burtland). In the main, the report, lay-out the basics and basis for the need of a sustainable development in securing the world’s future. On one hand, sustainable development recognizes the need for development to alleviate poverty while shielding the environment from development, on the other. Bottom line, it stems from the need to dialectically address the need for development while preserving the planet where we all exist. It has been more than two decades ago since the birth of the concept of sustainable development. And yet, the world is facing a worsening crisis. In fact, well known economists have claimed that the world’s present financial crisis is even worse than the Great Depression in the 1930s. This is further aggravated by the mass unemployment, food crisis and global warming. Can sustainability be measured? Great minds would readily answer, technically, yes. Identifying indicators and variables are the key in measuring sustainability. As a matter of fact, several economists and environmentalists have provided different formulas in measuring sustainability or sustainable development, for that matter, in the desire to assess it. However, if the main purpose of sustainable development is to uplift the quality of life of humanity and strengthen its capacity to defend and protect the environment, key areas of concern should be the present condition of humanity and the world per se. The alarming data of unemployment, hunger, dislocation, lack of education and the likes should not be overlooked. By taking these factors for granted, any thrust for the betterment of the future will be in vain. The ultimate goal in the thrust of measuring sustainable development is to evaluate its effectiveness based on the very objectives it was conceived. This paper has no intention to introduce new concepts of measuring sustainability. Self-limiting as it maybe, this will simply answer the question of the measurability of sustainability. This paper delves on the matter based on the two major areas of concern of sustainable development: humanity and environment. II. Requirements for Sustainable Development The Commission identified, extensively, key areas in enabling sustainable development. These requirements can be viewed as parameters in gauging how far the world has gone in paving the way for a sustainable development. The report identifies four major areas required to be reconstructed for a sustainable world. They are politics, economy, the social system and the environment. Politics Sustainable development put primary concern on the need for political reforms. It put emphasis on the “policy makers”, the governments. Governments play a vital role in the achievement of sustainable development in view of the fact that they have the political, social and moral responsibility to secure the world’s future. Sustainable development needs the governments to be more inclusive of and accountable to the needs, interests and welfare of all stakeholders. It requires the States to allow greater democratic participation in the policy decision making. Political structures, especially in developed countries must offer significant reforms acceptable to the world in general. Policy making is integral to all aspects of sustainable development. It binds all the aspects from production to profit and surplus, people and machines, living and non-living things, humanity and the world. Policy making defines the direction where sustainable development is heading. Economy Sustainable development requires an economic system that can equally allocate income and bridge the gap between the rich and poor, powerful and developing countries, a system that can create decent jobs for all the people. It requires a system that ensures the universal access to essential services like education, health, water, housing, public infrastructure and green investments. A system that will provide equitable distribution of land and agricultural resources that will ensure rural productivity. Sustainable development requires a system of balance by addressing the problems of today without exhausting the means for future use. Social System Sustainable development envisions a social system that provides for solutions for the tensions arising from disharmonious development (G. Burtland). A system that bridges the gap between the one-fourth rich and three-fourths poor world is what a sustainable development envisions. A social system that pursues policies that promotes the interest of the people instead of profits. , A system that will ensure mass participation and cooperation by raising the political, institutional, and even individual’s awareness on the matter of sustainable development. It requires a system that raises the level of social responsibility of the world. .Environment Sustainable development defends the environment in recognition of the need to progress. It requires the social understanding that people and the environment are connected to each other. Whatever happens to the environment, directly affects humankind. Sustainable development aims to integrate environmental planning politically, economically and socially. It requires humanity to reorient its perception of environment by appreciating not only for its current worth but essentially for its long-term value. These issues raised by the Commission are of great importance to achieve sustainable development and fulfil every nation, developed or developing; every class or race; every person’s aspirations in uplifting the quality if life for all. III. Measuring Sustainability in Context of the World Crisis For the last two decades, various attempts have been initiated by different political, economic and social institutions to measure sustainability, or sustainable development for that matter. Most, if not all, have put their efforts in weighing the balance between economic progress dictated by economic indicators like Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the likes and its effect to the environment. However, the soul of sustainable development is qualitative change in the life of humanity and its interrelationship with the planet’s security. Measurement, therefore of sustainability must go beyond the jargons of indicators and variables. Understanding of the context of the people’s everyday life must be taken into serious consideration. Data from Global Issues shows that over 3 billion people in the world live on less than $2.50 a day. In 2007, about 1.5 billion people all over the world are either lacking jobs or unemployed. According to World, Hunger, of the 7 billion population of the world, about 925 million are hungry. Disparity between the rich and the poor countries heightened. According to Global Issues, Combining the income or GDP of the 41 poor countries is far by short compared to the pooled wealth of world’s 7 richest people.5 percent of the global income comes from the poorest 40 percent while three quarters of the world income comes from the richest 20 percent. In this situation, children, suffer the most. According to UNICEF databank, there are 2.2 billion children in the world. 1.9 billion is in the developing world, Global Issues claim that 1 for every 2 children in the world, equivalent to one billion children live in poverty. 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, and 270 million have no access to health services. In 2003, 10.6 million died before they reached the age of 5. UNICEF data further reveals that there are 121 M children out of education worldwide. About 72 million children of primary school age were not in school in 2005, 57 percent of them were girls. More than a million children die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation; 2.2 million children die each year because they are not immunized; 15 million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS. About 400 million have with no access to safe water. 270 million have no access to health services. Clearly, the current globalization thrust has not levelled up the social ladder; it only increased the unsustainable gap between the rich and the poor. For the past decades, the world’s crises only deepened and intensified. Children, who are considered to be the future of the world, shoulder the brunt. On the aspect of the environmental condition, the environment has come to a point that it could no longer manage the required balance on its own, thus facing environmental degradation. The depletion of natural resources such land, mineral and other subsoil assets, timber, and nontimber forest resources, marine resources; and the disruption of vital ecosystem services such as the water cycle, the carbon cycle pressed a serious scenario in the near future. This phenomenon has resulted to community displacements that add up to the economic difficulties. Over the years, several scientific researches have arrived to a consensus that the human-induced global warming is no longer a threat but a reality. Increasing temperatures in various parts of the world and fringes in the weather pattern are manifestations of climate change, one of the greatest problems facing the planet today. Considering the facts of the world situation, it appears that attempts to reconstruct and develop the world with sustainability miserably failed. This can be regarded as a serious problem, taking into account the efforts and resources spent in this undertaking. Perhaps, the area of human development must be given due credence in the framework of sustainable development. Very few institutions, especially from the government have taken the issue of sustainable human development seriously. Concerns on human development are usually voiced out by the so-called civil society organizations. Civil society organizations are always being underrated especially when it comes to policy making. They must be given due recognition since they’re voices reflect the grassroots of the society. They are comprised of the most marginalized, yet majority of the world’s population. It is from their condition that we can depict the actual situation of crisis or progress. Human development is about enhancing the quality of people’s lives and enlarging people’s choices. This has numerous dimensions including greater access to knowledge, better nutrition and health services, more secure livelihoods, greater security against crime and physical violence, more satisfying leisure hours, greater political and cultural freedoms, stronger sense of community and more meaningful participation in decision-making. Emphasis to sustainable human development, inductively and deductively, can ensure greater sense of responsibility and accountability to environmental concerns. If development enables all individuals to enlarge their human capabilities to the fullest and be able to put those capabilities to the best use in all fields-economic, social, cultural and political, quality of life can be achieved. If humanity enjoys equal access to development opportunities, it will be easier to grasp the global ethics that sustainable development requires. If humanity is not burdened with their day-to-day survival, they can look at the world and the environment from a totally different dimension and take a significant part in its defence and protection. IV. Conclusion Can sustainability be measured? Yes, technically and qualitatively. But more importantly, measurement of sustainability must root from the framework of gauging the achievement of equity, human rights, and social justice at the heart of the development effort. Measurement must be made on the basis of the interconnectedness of people in the society, between people and nature, between economic production and social organization. At the very bottom of definition of sustainable development is the goal to enable all people throughout the world to satisfy their basic needs and enjoy a better quality of life. This means ensuring the right of all the people find decent and productive work. Securing the future entails uplifting of human dignity based on the universal norms of social justice. The right to development is for everybody to enjoy. Such right is defined by the Declaration on the Right to Development defines as “an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized” (Declaration on the Right to Development : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly). The Right to Development includes: full sovereignty over natural resources; self-determination; popular participation in development; equality of opportunity; and the creation of favourable conditions for the enjoyment of other civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. Sustainable development aims to secure the future. Hence, the advancement of humanity as a whole, guarantees the security of the future. It is an urgent for the people to achieve socioeconomic development, social equity and justice. For only through the fulfilment of these rights, humanity can be emancipated and the world can pave the way for a genuine sustainable development. References: “Declaration on the Right to Development : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly.” UN General Assembly. UN General Assembly, 4 December 1986. A/RES/41/128. G. Burtland. “Our Common Future: The World Commission on Environment and Development.” The World Commission on Environment and Development. United Nations, 1987. A/42/427. Giles Atkinson, Simon Diretz and Eric Neumayer. Handbook on Sustainable Development. Massachusetts: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2007. Global Community. 20 March 2011 . Global Issues. 20 March 2011 . Gregory E. Kersten, Zbigniew Mikolajuk, Anthony Gar-onyeh. Decision Support Systems for Sustainable Developments. 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