Sustainability 101 – What is Sustainability?
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Alessia and Marti (Unpublished)
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/14
What is sustainability? In biological ecosystems, it tends to mean the ability or capacity of that ecosystem to persist. It might ask, “How long has this ecosystem been around – and what’s its range of adaptability?” You can look at large-scale phenomena such as forests as one example. They’ve been around the block, and back, for a long time. In addition, it relates to nation and society building that is sustainable, which is known as sustainable development. This idea might ask, “How can we have a zero waste and renewable energy society?”
Finally, it can relate to the science of sustainability with respect to nation or society building, and the environment. It might ask, “How can we create a society sustainably integrated into the local environment?” Some of the main concerns for sustainability are green technologies, renewable energy, green building, sustainable agriculture and architecture, and the impacts of climate change on human societies and environment.
In particular, it relates to environmental degradation from overconsumption, and global warming or climate change. All of these ideas, and associated issues, are important, but I consider the most important one related to the changing climate and environmental degradation because these relate to human activity. That is, climate change global warming from human industrial activity and environmental degradation from human waste.
Sustainability might be considered a continuous movement or effort to meet the present needs of everyone. And while meeting everyone’s needs – children and the old, it’s not compromising or burdening the future generations by destruction of the environment or the climate. Some have delineated this as the intersection of economy, environment, and society.
License
In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.
Copyright
© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.
In-Sight Publishing 