A Natural Step Framework, Dr. Karl Henrik Robert

Rachel Carson’s Man and the Stream of time possesses enlightening perspectives of nature that have been marinating in her mind for ten years. Her writing reflects upon the effects that man has on nature and the role he plays in the ever changing environment. Her sole observation is that it is man’s nature to want to conquer the world, but nature is not one to be conquered. The writer affirms that nature is an entity that must be dignified, Like English poet Francis Thompson said, “Thou canst not stir a flower without troubling of a star.” Most environmentalist would agree that nature is not stationary, we cut the trees now today, its not just the trees that disappear ten years from now. As humanity advances, we create a multitude of

“The End of Nature,” by Bill McKibben is a startling book of non-fiction depicting the future in store for the environment and humans. His somber yet hopeful approach allows readers to sense the real intensity of this situation of mass environmental changes whilst remaining expectant of the advancements in the

The transition from the traditional hunter gatherer societies, in to an agriculture based living system, has allowed humans to increase their population size, putting strains on the Earth’s environment. Agriculture has also brought along with it a decrease in women’s roles in the community, while also bringing about a class system where the wealthy rule, and were the weak and poor obey. As humans began to domesticate more plants and animals, they settled in permanent areas. The Change from hunter gatherer benefited few, but had dire consequences for the earth and groups with in it. One such consequence was the population increase, which has lead to major issues throughout history, and one that has ties to current global issues.

Sustainability is currently a global concern. In recent years scientists have publicised theories that the Earth will not be able to cope with the exponential growth of pollution and resource consumption.

“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).

Even though we separated ourselves from nature in the attempt to salvage some beauty in the world we still “began to alter places where we were not,” through by-products of our industrialized society. (Mckibben XX) Mckibben says “it is also true that we are apart of nature” (Mckibben XXI) while Cronon wants us to see that “wilderness is more a state of mind than a fact of nature.” (Cronon 493) While Cronon wants humans to separate themselves from the wild, Mckibben asks us to confront nature head on. We are apart of it and“we possess the possibility of self-restraint” so we still have the means to stop abusing the natural order. In order to do this “we would need to change the ways we move ourselves around, the spaces we live in, the jobs we perform.” (Mckibben XXII) We can start by thinking of practical ways to affect the environment positively, starting in the

Pollution is a term that recently in the last sixty years became widely known in the United States. The idea was first introduced in the United States by Rachel Carson’s book, titled Silent Spring. Rachel Carson developed a clear thesis inside Silent Spring where every claim made in the book is supported with enormous substantial factual evidence. The overall theme of the book is calling for awareness and addressing issues with excessive usage of man-made and natural chemicals implemented into daily human life. Although Rachel Carson focuses predominately on concerns surrounding the topic of DDT, the author also gives her perspectives on other chemicals that are harmful to the environment. The research Rachel Carson has done to make the world well-informed on pollution was a great start to placing the topic on people’s mind. Nonetheless, in today’s world, humans must continue to enrich themselves on current pollution issues by understanding which chemicals contribute to pollution and how large in concentration. Human error must also be taken into account because chemicals humans thought could not be harmful can at times. An example of chemicals people thought could not be harmful was asbestos.

ou can only have so much good before it is all gone. Resource depletion is the biggest environmental issues known to man. As humans we’re using what we have to live, but we use more than we give out. Through science, we’re finally starting to understand that people are using too much of the resources and altering the face of the earth. If we’re not careful, these problems can’t be fixed.

Never in the history of the human species have we been in such a rapidly changing environment. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, we have been making social, economical, scientific, and environmental changes and advancements at an unprecedented rate. Societal advancements, while much appreciated by the average Joe, have been detrimental to our environment. Every days forests are cut, rivers polluted, and once ecologically important areas are cemented over to compensate for our rapidly growing population. As the status of our natural world becomes more critical by the year it is important that we look at the driving factors and reasons for this destruction of the natural world. While pollutants and globalization are the driving

(claim of fact) Among the many challenges we face in society, environmental degradation and the exhaustion of resources is one of the challenges that will have the most impact on not only our future generations, but the future of the earth. The human population across the globe is degrading both the terrestrial and marine biomes through means such as deforestation, the emission of greenhouse gases, improper disposal of waste, and other forms of pollution. As the global population continues to rise, the way we use our energy and our resources continues to gain importance. “These changes are down to human activity, not natural variability,” says Professor Will Steffen of the Australian National University to The Guardian.

Cradle-to-Cradle design is a revolutionary approach to the designs of products as well as systems (Haggar & Salah 154). Cradle-to-Cradle design usually models human industry on the processes of nature. This approach views material as nutrients, which circulate in healthy and safe metabolisms. Cradle-to-Cradle design approach suggests that industries should enrich and protect ecosystems and biological metabolism of nature. The approach continues to suggest that this should work while maintaining a productive and safe technical metabolism for effective circulation and use of technical and biological nutrient (Braungart, Michael, William McDonough, & Beatrice 34-37). This implies that the approach is an economic, social and industrial framework, which seeks to develop systems, which are both efficient and essentially waste free. The Cradle-to-Cradle design approach has no limitations to industrial design as well as manufacturing only. Various aspects of human civilization can apply this approach. Such aspects may include social ecosystems, economics, buildings and urban environment.

to be grown trees have to be cut down and I have explained the effects

The decline of the environment due to natural and human exertion is known as the degradation of the environment. The natural weather occurrences such as heavy rain, flooding, storms, earthquakes, volcanoes etc. are not administered under human control. These meteorological phenomenon’s wreak devastation on the environment from time to time causing the land to become unsuitable to cultivate. On this subject matter, the human population does not contain the power to stop the wrath of Mother Nature. Rather, we are forced to sit back and watch. Nevertheless, humans engage in a crucial role towards the degradation of the environment in which we live in. Unavoidably, the degradation of the environment is a rising and utmost worldwide subject. I accept that the root cause to environmental degradation is the excessive use of resources on our land utilized by the processes under capitalism. As Jensen wrote in Endgame, “The global industrial economy is the engine for massive environmental degradation and massive human and (nonhuman) impoverishment.

For decades, humans have fooled themselves into believing that we would never deplete all of earth’s resources, but because we could not control the population this has become almost inevitable. Not only is the exhaustion of resources a problem we face, but the destruction of these resources is as well. This destruction includes continued urban growth, degradation of land and water resources, massive deforestation, and buildup of greenhouse gases. Pollutants such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), radiation, and pesticides are all physical environmental factors found in air, land, or water that are damaging the planet. They recognize no political boundaries. Not only are resources affected but nature and many of its elements are in danger. Populations are being wiped out, species, and communities of plants, animals, and microorganisms that are working parts of our life-support systems are being destroyed. These are all partly responsible for the delivery of ecosystem services, which are the most irreversible of all losses. Just one element of biodiversity, species diversity, is disappearing at a rate estimated to be 1000 to 10,000 times the "background" rate, which is the more or less constant extinction rate that biologists presume to occur naturally over

As of recently, there has been an ever-growing buzz regarding the environment and being sustainable, and we need to embrace this movement. As the population grows, our demands on Earth’s resources grow, and this current rate is not sustainable. Barring any change, we will not have enough freshwater and natural resources to support our society in the near future. Each day, we incur more and more damage through the demands of consumerism, and this must come to an end. We must, as a society, take it upon ourselves to make individual changes which will potentially be the start of a global shift to a sustainable lifestyle. Our conscious decisions and actions will determine the future health of our planet. Right now is the time we can make a