Sustainable Development And Development

“Many current discussions about sustainability focus on the ways in which human activity...can be maintained in the future without exhausting all of our current resources… there has been a close correlation between the growth of human society and environmental degradation - as communities grow, the environment often declines” (603).

In Bill McKibben’s book Deep Economy, the chapter “After Growth” contains McKibben’s assertion dealing with the challenges of economic growth. McKibben states that economic growth has done little to diminish wealth inequality, done little to help stop the detrimental effects on the planet, and done little to make us any happier.

Sustainability has been at the forefront of much international policy in the recent years, however how it should be implemented is contested. The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development offers a set of guidelines and goals for nations around the world. This however, is telling about the predominant voices on sustainable development where there is a focus on international assistance and management. This section will look at how exactly the international voices interact with the local ones on how sustainable development should actually be achieved in developing countries.

Economic development is one perspective which plays a huge role in sustainability and the environment we live in. Unfortunately, many people do not reap the benefits of a prosperous economy, and in fact, the relationship between economy and the environment play a pivotal influence regarding ineffective sustainability currently throughout the world. Michael Carley and Phillipe Spapens write in their book ‘Sharing

One of the many issues that occur with the growth of population is in fact poverty. As more and more people are born, it cuts down many resources because of over population in the world. With poverty there’s unemployment. Going to the poorest cities in the world and able to see the struggles of over population with, shakes for houses, stacked on top of one and other and lack of recourses many struggle with. According to William and Mary Cunningham expert from Population Growth states; “Some believe that population growth is the ultimate cause of poverty and environmental degradation.” (172) If population is the root cause of poverty for many around the world imagen their environment recourses or their environment surroundings. Environmental degradation is a cause of not taking care of our environment and letting things go. So how are the poorest cities with their environment surroundings? Lack of agricultural land, food

According to Ray (1998), every four days there is a net population increase of over one million people, and this exponential increase is greatly associated as being one of the main drivers of poverty and environmental degradation worldwide (Dasgupta, 1995), resulting in extreme stress on ecosystem services (ES), as well as human development. However, the extent to which future population growth will be a ‘problem’ for both the environment and development is disputed amongst academics around four main models which link population, environment, and development together. In this essay, I will begin by exploring the vicious circle and Malthusian models and their views of population growth on environment and development, and contrast these with the Boserup and Cornucopian models using examples, before concluding.

The goal of sustainable development is a generally agreed upon one, the Brundtland report’s definition is the most commonly cited, that it is of to “meet the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability to meet those of the future” (Brundtland). However, with the growing international concern of environmental issues it has become more difficult to find consensus on where the focus should be to best make an impact.

to the dilemma of meanings over sustainable development is to change the use of words to sustainability (O’Connor, 1994) or sustainable livelihoods (Workshop on Urban Sustainability, 2000). These phrases avoid some possible conflicts between economic growth, social equity and the environment and instead focus on human needs and the environment–what Brundtland claimed was the aim of sustainable development. Deep Ecologists reject the concept of sustainable development as it prioritizes the needs of humans, however conceived and defined, over the rest of life and largely views the environment from a human standpoint. Despite these problems, we have used the phrase sustainable development as it attempts to embrace the relation between the socio-economic and environmental and has gained widespread recognition. It is clear from all the debates about

So, to actually assess a growth, environmental issues must be taken into account. This means the involve of cooperating natural capital into economic growth. For example, in conventional growth, the only consideration of a piece of wood is it’s price. But in green growth, the main thing be considered is that the whole value that a tree can make by reducing CO2 concentration in the air. So, green growth is not only considering the economic growth but also assessing environmental costs.

As we look back upon history, we have considered our planet to have a never ending supply of resources that humans need in order to satisfy their needs and wants. However, if you look at the world recently, humans have started to realize that these resources aren’t unlimited and have started thinking about sustainability, protection and the preservation of the environment. Looking at the limited supply of natural resources and the increasing utilization due to the growing population and consumption, if we do not come up with a solution to this global environmental crisis, the over depletion of resources will be ongoing which will jeopardize the standard of living for future generations. Natural calamities, droughts, decreasing clean water supply, air pollution, and increasing global temperatures will all continue unless we start taking action immediately. For example, smog that was caused by air pollution in China led to water contamination for natives in China which led to wild life disruption with oil spills (Black,2007). According to theorists in the readings, development and underdevelopment are both caused by environmental situations. Economic development and environment issues are interrelated issues that need to be looked at together and that development processes degrade the environment which eventually can undermine economic development (WCED, 1987:3). Sustainability stipulates the situations under which individuals and environment can survive efficiently as a

The notion that there are limits to growth is not new to science. The debate that exponential population growth and economic growth, coupled with natural resources depletion, cannot be sustained has started already a few centuries ago with a ground-breaking publication: “Essay on the principle of population” Thomas Malthus in 1798. With more scientific knowledge developed around this debate, a reverse strategy was formed on the international political agenda called Sustainable Development, and nowadays became a widely used terminology.

Sustainable development has become each country’s priority and to effectively achieve this growth many countries use natural resources in production to comply with the consumers’ needs, at the same time making sure that the future generations’ needs are also met (Repetto et al., 1989). Hence the use of natural resources in production is processed carefully and effectively yet, even with cautious dealings accidents occur which result in chaos. Similarly the Montara oil spill in 2009 caused chaos in the Timor Sea and its surrounding population immensely. On 21st August 2009 Australia witnessed one of its worst oil disasters, an oil and gas leak that occurred in the Montara oil field in the Timor Sea. The leak occurred due to an explosion and it finally ended on 3rd November 2009. During the leak and even years after the issue of compensation still hung above the company PTTEP Australasia (PTTEP AA). In this essay we will explore the incident through the perspectives of PTTEP AA, the people of West Timor and the marine environment. Henceforth we will come to the conclusion of how this ongoing issue can be best handled.

Human technological advancements make it possible to sustain larger and larger population by exploiting more and more natural resources. The three revolutions in human history, agricultural, industrial and green have all been answers to overpopulation. Naturally, industrialization leads to environmental degradation. The concern with Industrialization is that it is not a long term solution to human sustainability, since it operates under the premise of the tech fix, or the idea that humans will be able to invent new technologies to ensure their own survival. These solutions, while economically advantageous, do not consider the long term impacts of this continual and escalating

The concept of sustainable development has become a major topic among intellectuals from various fields. Sustainable development has gone through various changes in its definitions and at present does not have a commonly accepted definition. The origination of the concept of sustainable development is debatable. In 1974 at a conference on Science and Technology for Human Development by the World Council of Churches the concept of a “sustainable society” is believed to have been first noted. This early concept focused on equitable distribution of scarce resources and the need for democratic decision making. In 1980 the currently used term of sustainable development emerged in the

Presently, changes are being experienced in areas where development projects aimed at improving the economic and social status of a region are being carried. These changes happen to affect the environment within which the projects are being carried and they often call for strategies to be developed by the developing body to make sure that these impacts are reduced significantly (Beer, Au and Hall n.d.). Despite different development projects aiming at bringing about some positive changes in the society or in a given setting, studies show that the same projects may lead to conflicts between the environment and the human activities being carried out in that particular region. Initially, the campaign for economic growth was viewed as the key for increasing the standards of living in a given region but very little attention was given to the social and environmental sensitivity and impacts that accompanied these projects (Chen, Liu and Liaw 2011). As a result, there has been a growing need to reduce the impacts of the projects as well as making sure that the long term benefits of the projects are maximized in leading to sustainability of the projects.