Sustaining Human Societies:

Economics, Environment, Policies and Education

EVS Digital Assignment (III)

“VIT UNIVERSITY”

(Vellore)

Submitted by:--

Ratnesh kanungo

(15BIT0257)

Meaning of Sustainability

In ecology, sustainability is the capacity to endure; it is how biological systems remain diverse and productive indefinitely. The organizing principle for sustainability is sustainable development, which includes the four interconnected domains: ecology, economics, politics and culture.

Sustainable developmentSustainable development (SD) is a process for meeting human development goals while maintaining the ability of natural systems to continue to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services upon which the economy and society depend. Sustainable development ties together concern for the carrying capacity of natural systems with the social, political, and economic challenges faced by humanity. Sustainable development is the organizing principle for sustaining finite resources necessary to provide for the needs of future generations of life on the planet.

SUSTAINING HUMAN SOCIETIES

Almost half of the world’s population lives in urban areas and half in rural areas. Government policies, poverty, lack of land to grow food, declining agricultural jobs, famine, and war that force people out of rural areas are all factors that determine how urban areas develop. Urban areas are rarely self-sustaining, threaten biodiversity, destroy and damage ecosystems, lack trees, grow little of their own food, concentrate pollutants and noise, spread infectious disease, and are centers of poverty, crimes, and terrorism. Urban areas relying on mass transportation spread vertically and urban areas relying on automobiles spread horizontally. Advantages of automobiles include convenience, personal benefits, and boosted economies, Disadvantages include air pollution, promotion of urban sprawl, increase in death rate, and time-and gas-wasting traffic jams. Advantages of bicycles and motor scooters include low cost, little to no air or noise pollution, require little space, and are energy efficient. Disadvantages include little accident protection, impractical for long distances, can be tiring, little parking, and gas scooter engines emit

high air pollution. Mass transit rail systems are more energy efficient than cars, produce lower air pollution, require less land, cause fewer injuries and deaths, and reduce car congestion. Disadvantages include high cost to build and maintain, rigid schedules, noise pollution, and they are cost effective only in densely populated areas. Buses are more flexible than rail systems, can easily be rerouted, cost less to develop, and can reduce car use. Disadvantages include rigid schedules, noise pollution, and they are not always cost efficient. Rapid rail systems can reduce car and plane travel, are ideal for long trips, and re more efficient than cars and planes. Disadvantages include high operation and maintenance cost, noise pollution, and they are not always cost efficient. Cities can be made more sustainable and more desirable places to live by creating parks, greenbelts, urban growth boundaries, cluster developments, mixed-use villages, greenways, and Eco cities.

Economic Sustainability

The general definition of economic sustainability is the ability of an economy to support a defined level of economic production indefinitely.

It has been suggested that because of rural poverty and overexploitation, environmental resources should be treated as important economic assets, called natural capital. Economic development has traditionally required a growth in the gross domestic product. This model of unlimited personal and GDP growth may be over. Sustainable development may involve improvements in the quality of life for many but may necessitate a decrease in resource consumption.

Environmental sustainability involves making decisions and taking action that are in the interests of protecting the natural world, with particular emphasis on preserving the capability of the environment to support human life. It is an important topic at the present time, as people are realizing the full impact that businesses and individuals can have on the environment. Basically the world's standard definition of environmental sustainability is sustainable development, which means sustainable economic growth, which is an oxymoron. No form of economic growth can be continued indefinitely. Furthermore, all economic growth today is terribly environmentally degrading. Environmental sustainability is about making responsible decisions that will reduce your business' negative impact on the environment. It is not simply about reducing the amount of waste you produce or using less energy,

but is concerned with developing processes that will lead to businesses becoming completely sustainable in the future.

Currently, environmental sustainability is a topical issue that receives plenty of attention from the media and from different governmental departments. This is a result of the amount of research going into assessing the impact that human activity can have on the environment.

Businesses can potentially cause damage to all areas of the environment. Some of the common environmental concerns include:

damaging rainforests and woodlands through logging and agricultural clearing

polluting and over-fishing of oceans, rivers and lakes

polluting the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels

damaging prime agricultural and cultivated land through the use of unsustainable farming practices

Education for Sustainable Development

Education is an essential tool for achieving sustainability. People around the world recognize that current economic development trends are not sustainable and that public awareness, education, and training are key to moving society toward sustainability. Through education for sustainable living, students gain knowledge, skills, and values to address the environmental and social challenges of the coming decades. They

learn to think ecologically, understand the interconnectedness of human and natural systems, and develop the capacity to apply this understanding so that human communities and natural ecosystems may thrive. Education for Sustainable Development allows every human being to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to shape a sustainable future. Education for Sustainable Development means including key sustainable development issues into teaching and learning; for example, climate change, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity, poverty reduction, and sustainable consumption.

Conclusion Sustainable development is largely about people, their well-being, and equity in their relationships with each other, in a context where nature-society imbalances can threaten economic and social stability. Because climate change, its drivers, its

impacts and its policy responses will interact with economic production and services, human settlements and human societies, climate change is likely to be a significant factor in the sustainable development of many areas.

Impacts of climate change on development paths also include impacts of climate-change response policies, which can affect a wide range of development-related choices, from energy sources and costs to industrial competitiveness to patterns of tourism.

YESTERDAY LEADERS COMMANDED THE CONTROL. TODAY, LEADERS EMPOWER AND COACH THAT MEANS POTENTIAL LEADERS WILL BE EMPOWERED TO THE EXPOSER OF NEEDS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, WHAT WE NEED TODAY.

--Dr. APJ KALAM

…………………….THANKING-YOU………………………

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