Sustainable Development - Essay Example

Sustainable development Sustainable development is the way of using the natural resources in such a way that the human needs are met but least harm is done to nature considering the future demands. It is a concept to preserve the nature and also use a program to use resources in such a way that the changing face of population does not tax much on ecology. Sustainable development does not only concentrate on environmental issues. It is more of using the natural resources by the present population with keeping in mind the future need of the coming generation. This has certainly demanded a limit on the developing process of world. World has been changing enormously hardly looking at damage it is been doing to the environment. The ecological balance of the planet has been destructed greatly due to the industrial waste and carbon emission from transport system. The first world countries have polluted the planet deeply and it is ironical that the same countries encourage third world countries to cut down on pollution. Some have even criticized that sustainable development is provoking the world to step back to pre modern style of living. “Sustainable Development is often an over-used word, but goes to the heart of tackling a number of inter-related global issues such as poverty, inequality, hunger and environmental degradation” (Shah, 2010).This idea arose from various movement for protecting the nature and environment from the past. This concept gives different meaning to different people and we can see that lot of countries have various policies which encourage environmental sustainability. The sustainable development has been given more importance since the emergence of global warming issue which has threatened the world lately. Global warming has been a phenomenon which has raised much eye brows in recent years. It is an increase in the planets temperature since 20th century and its continuation. The increase of Greenhouse gas has led to the detoriation of the ozone layer .Scientist have found out that the carbon emission have led to the creation of hole in the ozone layer. “Under the George W. Bush administration, the USA government framed climate change as a threat to core economic interests, questioning the scientific basis for limiting CO2 emissions. Many political leaders in Washington agreed with this”(Humphreys,Pg. 44).Even though a very positive vibe can be seen among governments little is seen towards the practice. Coal and oil usage have made difficult for the US economy to cut the carbon emission. If the rich and developed countries like US and UK are contributing less to the environmental benefit how we can expect anything from the poor and developing countries. It is said that chemical pollution is going to be on rise in US by 2011.Even the Middle Eastern country of United Arab Emirates is on par with US in exploiting the natural resources of the planet. It is most energy consuming nation on the planet. They have created even artificial island which has destroyed the coral reef which has really down turned the ecology of ocean. The luxurious life of people in the desert with ample air conditioning and lighting has created an extra burden of energy consumption .The WWF was embarrassed by the recent WWF report which states their tremendous energy consumption and carbon emission. Population too has been a major factor in the exploitation of the natural resources to an uncontrollable level. It is known fact that the rich societies use the major resources and the poor are left with minimal food supplies .Many wooden products from forest , food products, water supplies all are unevenly distributed. The unsatisfying demand of these products has put a big burden on environment. Population has been increasingly growing in developing countries like India, china, Nigeria etc. Countries in Sub Saharan African region and South Asian regions are supposedly to be very high. Even though Africa has more birth rates, infant mortality and HIV/AIDS is also on rise. These poor and developing countries are at high risk of diseases and illness due to the adverse and polluted environment they live in. They are having polluted water and low quality food products to satisfy their daily needs. . “While the developing world is projected to be the location of the majority of world population growth over the next fifty years, it not only has decreasing fertility rates as I noted earlier, but also much higher numbers of infant deaths”(Aradau, Pg .10). The infant deaths are mainly due to the malnourishment and low level living conditions. Environment has been less friendly recently with frequent droughts, famines and floods which have made people environmental refugees. People are displaced because of deforestation and other adverse situation in their living space. Consumption pattern of people are also drastic .People in developed countries consume high calorie dense food whereas third world countries struggle to make their ends meet. When it comes to natural resources Africa is the world’s richest continent. It has immense wealth of metals, diamonds, untilled farm land and other food resources .Despite the natural wealth it has the most impoverished and abused community. With developed countries misusing water and other natural resources no measures are taken to at least provide fresh water to the people of such under developed countries. Every house hold in developed countries uses high proportion of energy whereas poor live in complete darkness. Different strategies have been planned by European countries whereas little is to be seen in practice. Poor countries of the world are suffering the dire consequences created by the developed countries. According to Mohammed “In international negotiations all are equal in the eyes of law, but in practice it’s not really the truth. In practice the big countries, the powerful countries; they try to impose their policies. They try to dictate the policies for others” (Video 15). Poor people have less voice in the international organization like UN and UNESCO as these have a dominance of voice from the leading countries. Countries like Africa and Bangladesh have no ways of sending representative to such events to voice their demands. They have existed just like a man power for creating food and other products to supply to rich countries. Moreover they have been stolen of their natural wealth which makes their sustenance more difficult. We cannot see much effort being taken from rich countries in order to make the lives of poverty stricken better apart from verbal promises. Rich countries dictate the policies for others. Industrial revolution has made the rich European countries to direct the poor countries on their will. Africa is one country which has been exorbitantly exploited by wealthy nations. In order for correct sustainability world has to be seen as in inter connected platform of time and space. It should be understood that air pollution in US can affect air quality in other parts of world. To see the improvement in the environment policy we can look at the southern group of poor countries. The northern countries neglect south saying that they are so poor that ‘green concept’ does not fit them. But it can be seen that the economical growth of these people are more depended on environment that people in North. Attempts should be made to protect the livelihood of these people by incorporating more traditional and indigenous method in their lifestyle. Southern population depend on the environment for their survival but are denied of the benefits derived from it .It has been argued that ‘green concept’ is a thing of necessity or a thing of free will. Sustainable development is unachievable unless the poverty and corruption on the poor countries is lessened to a great degree. Governmental agencies and international organizations should strictly follow the objectives of upgrading the standard of living of the low income and poor countries. Environment is considered as a luxury by the elite group and they enjoy all the cream of natural resources leaving the poor to suffer. Indigenous people like tribal groups and villagers are living in an eco – friendly way and does not exploit the environment like the western countires.Their consumptions is limited and with less exploitation to environment. In actual sense the northern countries should learn form these people who are more close to earth .They have intimate knowledge of the eco system and cycle of nature and live according to that. “Since indigenous groups rely on their environment for their livelihood, they are likely to harvest a wide range of different products, for food of different kinds, clothes, tools, shelter and the requirements of cultural and religious ceremonies, and hence manage to encourage biodiversity”(Simone, Pg 105). This system shows how well they are connected to the nature. Sustainability of ecology of forest can only be done by maintaining the renew ability and the diversity of the species in it. “At present forest owners and tropical forest governments have a rational economic incentive to deforest”(Humphreys,Pansaga,Smith,Pg .47) Forest is not just a resource for wood but in itself is a habitat for millions of species of living beings. Great number of trees is cut to cater to the need of rich countries throughout the world when poor are still living in small thatched houses or huts. The change has to be coming from rich countries as more loss is being caused due to their way of conducting life. To become more successful government and international organizations has to team up with social movements. They should deepen their knowledge about these movements, use their major concepts, and study well the factors contributing the success or failure of these movements and make changes to achieve success. Many organization meet at international level to discuss the climate change and environmental pollution happening on the planet .One discussion at such a meeting was so: “Most discussion around climate change at the time was, was based on climate change within environmental issue and how could you lower greenhouse gas emissions and whose responsibility it was to take the lead and how do we have to calculate the emissions in the atmosphere and, and all sorts of technical issues” (Audio 17) It is very important to educate the whole population about the drastic changes going around in nature. Climate changes are affecting the people living on coastal areas, islands and they are being deprived of land and food due to adverse natural conditions. Climate change is a major hindrance in the sustainable development of countries like Africa .Africa being less responsible for climate change ,still it is very vulnerable to climate change .Agricultural production of the country is going to get affected and can dwindle their food security. “The relationships and connections embedded within the foods that you eat stretch across these different places, each of which has its own geographical, economic and political characteristics”(Goodman,Pg106) Keeping this in mind rich countries should work to reform this adverse condition faced by agriculture based countries. Such conditions can have direct effect on the global economy has the production level of food sector will decline and which would increase food shortage and high price level. Countries are becoming hotter and drier inspite of all the measures taken by the international organizations and governments. There is shortage of rain in tropical regions and the people are suffering due to increase in temperature. The rural people are suffering immensely because of the greedy life style of rich and developed countries All governments needs to incorporate climate issues into their economic planning and implement policies to avoid climate change and upgrade the ecological system of environment. Big corporate should minimize the adverse affect on the environment and should take steps to upgrade the social and economical environment of the poor and underdeveloped countries. Sustainability development is not only an environmental issue but a social and economical one. Every citizen has a role to play in it. There is general misconception that sustainability development is the business of International organization, Government and NGOs. Companies think that they are not all a part of this movement. This misconception has to be raised and every business organization has to be motivated towards an eco – friendly way of conducting business. Companies are a foundation of any economy, and they should be well disciplined on the way they work. They create employment, produce goods and services and develop infrastructure. They have a big share in the contribution to the sustainability development concept. So it should be well kept in mind that sustainability development can be practiced only if the citizens, public and private sectors, schools, religious organizations ands so on come hand in hand and work towards the global sustenance. References Aradau ,C. Environmental Issues And Responses Audio 17 Humphreys,D. A Warming World Humphreys,D.,Pansaga,P.,Smith,M.Prospects and Possibilities Goodman, M.K. Environmental Issues And responses. Shah, A. (2010). Sustainable development. Retrieved from http://www.globalissues.org/issue/367/sustainable-development. Simone, S. 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