Principles, Concepts, and Challenges of Sustainable Development - Essay Example

Principles, Concepts, and Challenges of Sustainable Development Introduction The concept of sustainable development promises several good things for generations to come and many government policies today are geared towards the concept. However, the impact of rapid urbanization, industrialization, and population on the environment is making realization of sustainable development far more complex. The challenges facing sustainable development include depletion of non-renewable resources and absence of its renewable substitute, economic growth and demands for more natural resources, pollution and its impact on health. The following sections discuss the principle, concept, and important issues surrounding sustainable development. Principles and Concepts of Sustainable Development Sustainable development has 27 set of principles but the most critical are those that directly promotes the protection of human beings and the environment (Lemons & Brown 1995, p.3; UN 1992, p.1). These principles include the right of every individual to health and productive life, eradication of poverty, achieving economic and social development while protecting the environment, and the need to safeguard the Earth’s ecosystem through global partnership. In line with these principles are the concepts supporting the notion that environmental protection and development is integrated and eradication of poverty and disparities in the standard of living are concerns of all individuals and nations (UN, 1992, p.1). The term ‘development’ in the context of sustaining economic growth or prosperity embraces important concerns over the quality of life of present and future generations (Pearce et al., 1990, p.1). The 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development containing the principles on sustainable development are specifications of norms or “program of actions” (Hackett 2001, p.333) that will guide every nation in pursuing their individual national development. For instance, sustainable development requires nations to avoid damaging their own environment as wells as those beyond their national boundaries. They should eradicate poverty and uplift their standard of living. Refrain or prevent activities that could damage the environment and affect the health of people and more importantly, they should take immediate actions to avert the degradation of the environment (Lemons & Brown 1995, p.3). According to Sands (2003, p.252), sustainable development is all about meeting the needs of today without compromising the welfare of future generations. For this reason, the basic needs of people particularly the poor and limitations of the environment to provide the present and future needs are two essential concepts of sustainable development. However, despite the many years of effort, the quality of the environment is constantly degrading in most part of the world. For instance, large forests in Africa and in Brazil are rapidly diminishing, tropical rangelands is gradually becoming deserts, forests and lakes are being destroyed by acid rain in Europe, and in the U.S., water is being contaminated with nitrate (Darkoh & Rwomire 2003, p.1). The Human Impact on the Environment It is important to note that the environmental challenges facing sustainable development are widespread and not only limited to developing countries. The common reason for such environmental devastation is the unavoidable human impact on the environment due to urbanisation, industrialisation, agriculture, mining, and incidents involving hazardous chemicals such as oil spill. Particularly, in industrialised and developed countries, continued productions of toxic materials and the environmental problems associated with its disposal is a major challenge to sustainable development and the quality of human health. Mining is an unavoidable human activity but it is often times the cause of human diseases due to pollution and degradation of the environment. The human impact is not a new issue; in fact it is one of the key factors being eyed in the destruction of the earth’s atmosphere. For instance, in the late 1800s, the CO2 level rose by about 30 percent and continually rising until today because of the pollution being created through coal, oil, and natural gas burning. More importantly, humans destroy large portions of forest around the world for agricultural and industrialization purposes. Consequently, high CO2 concentrations and different greenhouse gases constantly increase the Earth’s natural greenhouse effect (Bochniarz & Cohen 2006, p.14). Urban development is one of the major factors reducing or degrading the quality of the environment. For instance, according to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, the increase in morbidity and mortality is associated with air and water pollution particularly in urban areas. These harmful pollutants that are affecting the health of a significant number of people are the results of massive energy production, emissions from transportation and different industries, and modern lifestyle (Roosa 2008, p.23). These challenges facing sustainable development is far from being overcome since urban population is growing rapidly. The UN report suggests that 49% or almost half of the 6.46 billion of the total world population will be living in the urban areas starting 2005 onwards. For instance, in 2006 the United States population reached 300 million and it is estimated to be in the vicinity of 400 million or more by 2043 due to rapid population growth. Similarly, developing countries population is growing along with rapid development and industrialization. Shenzhen City in China for example was once a village with considerably small population but due industrialization, it has grown to be a metropolis with 3 million inhabitants in just 15 years (Roosa 2008, p.5). According to Barrow (2006, p.346), rapid but unplanned urban growth has serious implications for environmental management particularly in developing countries. These cities are usually overcrowded and the environment is easily contaminated due to clogged drains, poor housing and inadequate garbage management. Clearly, industrialization and urbanization entails population growth and environmental problems that may severely affect initiatives for sustainable development. Human Capacity in Sustaining and Protecting the Environment The principles and concepts of sustainable development recognizes the reality of human activity and its effects on the environment but also believed in the sincerity human beings in sustaining and protecting these resources and the ability of the environment to regenerate. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, although exploit the earth’s natural resources and creating pollution in the process, people can do some activities that can also limit the effects of these pollutants and stay within the environments regeneration capacity (OECD 2000, p.123). For instance, the environment as we learn from in biology is self-purifying and if the result of human activities stays within that regenerative feature, the environment can effectively heal itself naturally. However, the problem is new technologies enable humans to exploit natural resources rapidly disallowing the environment to regenerate itself on time. These modern but unsustainable human activities is creating an ecosystem that would end one day or a ‘cradle to grave’ (El-Haggar 2007, p.125) system. This life cycle thinking promotes the endless extraction of natural resources only to return it to the ground as waste (Azapagic et al. 2004, p.427). For instance, natural resources are being extracted for manufacturing then transported and distributed. It will be use by consumers, may be re-used, maintained, and recycled but it will always end on final disposal- to the ground. The most favourable human activities is then to adapt a “cradle to cradle’ system where natural resources are considered and being use in two sensible ways. To sustain development and protect the environment at the same time, renewable resources such as forest, animals, and so on must be used in the same or lower rate than their natural capacity to regenerate. Similarly, non-renewable resources such as minerals must be use optimally and efficiently use until they are exhausted or at the rate at which an acceptable substitute is found (Lopez 2008, p.3). Approaches to Sustainable Development There are a number of suggestions to ensure sustainable development and the most prominent is to conserve renewable resources and prevents it extinction. The flow of waste must be kept below the regenerative or processing capacity of the environment. Depletion or exhaustion of non-renewable resources should not be allowed (Kooten 1993, p.175). However, out of the three suggestions, the later is the hardest to realize since involves two critical issues. First, it needs to be balance with the economic benefits of development and the damages it can cause to the environment. Second, preventing depletion of non-renewable resources will only lead to more exploration of the environment (Fabbri et al. 2003, p.101) According to Richards (2009, p.152), incompatibility exists between the concept of sustainability and mined non-renewable resources. For instance, applying sustainable development on the mining industry is difficult since the industry by its very nature is affecting the wellbeing of nearby communities negatively. Moreover, allowing the industry to continue even in an extraction rate that can sustain the needs of current and future generations, their activities will still affect the health of communities near its area of operation. For example, the Alberta Heritage Fund and the Alaska Permanent Fund are funds coming from a certain portion of their respective oil and gas industry and since they know that mining activities have socio-economic impact on nearby communities, almost fifty percent of these funds go to various community objectives such as support health and education (Richards 2009, p.159). However, this is not obviously a solution to sustain the environment since none of these activities can actually prevent resources from depletion and ensure the needs of future generation. The most favourable approach then aside from limiting the rate of depletion is to require the industry to provide compensating investment into its renewable counterpart. For example, oil and gas are non-renewable but it can be sustainable by having significant compensating investment on wood alcohol tree planting. The idea according to Gao (1998, p.53), is to reduce consumption of non-renewable resources while increasing the use of its renewable substitute. This approach will create a balance between unsustainable and sustainable activities of the industry and ensure the availability of such resources and its substitute for future generations. Setting aside a certain percentage of earnings for research and development for renewable substitutes can help the industry find a better alternative that will not only prevent a particular resource from depletion but ensure continuity of their mining business. Technological and Economic Limitations However, in reality, the full conservation of these non-renewable resources is still far from being realized because of technological and economic limitations. For instance, there is still no renewable substitute for oil particularly in products like synthetic plastics, tissues, medicine, and other materials that depend entirely on oil. Another example is artificial fertilizer which is being produced using natural gas. Although recycling is a good solution to prevent depletion of oil products, the supply of recycled products is not enough to meet the demands of rapid growth and development. Moreover, in reality, recycling is a time and resource consuming process thus the price of a new and recycled materials is almost the same. Another implication of reducing the extraction of oil and other natural resources is the actuality that many economies depend on oil export and processing. For example, countries in the Middle East like Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Libya are major oil exporters and once limitations on extraction and renewable substitute for oil is found, these countries may suffer economic breakdown. Politically, none of these countries would agree on the idea of limiting non-renewable natural resources and for the fact that they are also consumers of their own product in an almost free price; they would surely hesitate to import and pay for renewable resources (Gechev 2005, p.14). It is therefore clear that sustainable development focusing only on extraction rate or conservation is not realistic since it would limit economic growth. Conclusion Sustainable development has many principles concerning economic growth and environmental protection. However, the most prominent is the preservation of renewable and non-renewable resources while maintaining economic growth. Study of the implications of sustainable development suggest that controlling the depletion of non-renewable resources such as oil and natural gas by limiting or reducing extraction rate is not a realistic idea since the demand for such resources increase while the economy of each country grows. Funding research and development for renewable substitutes is probably the most viable approach but this too have implications on oil and gas exporting countries. It is therefore necessary to study the concept of sustainable development further particularly on issues concerning the impact of rapid population growth and use of renewable alternatives. 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