Sustainable life - Essay Example

Sustainable life Sustainability is the tendency of a thing to remain and not vanish with the passage of time. Humans can be sustainable by improving the way of spending life and making the life greener. This can be achieved by being energy efficient. Thus, if I were to define sustainability as it implies on me, I would define sustainability as my tendency to be cautious in the use of things in everyday life and my ability to minimize consumption as well as waste. Sustainability will only result if all human beings make a collective effort to save things and minimize wastage. 2. The main thing that this course has taught me is that I need to be responsible in my use of things.

Cities are the contributors of about 80 per cent of carbon dioxide to the air (Steins, 2007). I should use low energy appliances in my home. I should make use of empty containers instead of throwing them in the dustbins. I should do wise shopping. I should reserve a bag for carrying things. Whenever I go shopping, the bag should be with me and I should put everything in that bag instead of plastic bags. Long story short, I have to make sure that nothing gets wasted. 3. Principal challenges that hinder the tendency of cities to become sustainable are the citizens’ huge reliance on the depleting natural resources.

The biggest challenge in front of government is to improve the standard of living of the poor population in the urban areas. As the population in a city increases and its economy strengthens because of growing businesses, so do the complexity of management of these cities and administration of business. 4. Oil is America’s biggest problem. In order for US to become sustainable, it is imperative that all efforts are focused at minimizing consumption of oil. Alternative energy sources like wind and solar energy should be used.

In order to make US sustainable, cities should be made more compact. Space available should be made use of in such a way that less space is used for constructing more. The existing infrastructures of cities should be improved instead of investing in demolishing and constructing from the scratch. Towns should be planned while promoting social inclusion and improving the environment. Sustainability should be the scale to measure the innovation in business on (Goldstein, 2011). 5. I would really like to live a sustainable life.

When I think of my kids and their kids and the generations that are yet to come, the fact that natural resources are depleting terrifies me. I don’t want to spend a luxurious lifestyle on the cost of the peace of my future generations. Therefore, I would want to live a truly sustainable lifestyle. In a sustainable lifestyle, I would love the air because it would be pollution free as there would be no cars on the roads, only bicycles. Bicycles do not consume any fuel to be driven. In addition to that, I would be much smarter in a sustainable lifestyle than the much I am now because I would have to peddle the bicycle wherever I would have to go.

Sustainable lifestyle would be very sophisticated and stylish. Every house would be capped with a glass panel which would be installed to capture sunlight to generate solar energy. References: Goldstein, S, (2011). We Need to Grow to Become Sustainable. Retrieved from http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/03/24/we-need-to-grow-to-become-sustainable/. Steins, C. (2007). Ten Principles for Sustainable City Governance. Retrieved from http://www.planetizen.com/node/27556.