Capra's Definition Of Sustainable Communities

Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory encompasses every aspect of Adam Lanza’s development. His theory separates the environment into four distinct systems, which are Microsystem, Mesosystem, Exosystem, Macrosystem and Chronosystem. In the following, I will apply his theory to the specific case as described above. I will also analyze

The Sustainable Communities Index is a system of indicators for livable, equitable and prosperous cities. It is

The Ecological Theory is not being probed in this research; it is limited to be an organizing tool. The interview guide that we use tried to include all the systems in the theory (macro, micro, meso, exo, and crhono5), and their probable relations through different issues, which will correspond to one or more systems. However, even the theory would not define the study, it contributes to the design.

“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).

Sustainability relates to the ongoing capacity of Earth to maintain all life, which means developing ways to ensure that all resources on Earth are used and managed responsibly so they can be maintained for future generations.

You have to think broadly when it comes to a sustainable community. There are sustainable practices for agriculture, energy, etc. For agriculture , we mainly think about the soil and the erosion that occurs. Tilling used to be harsh and repetitive across the midwest, which in return destroyed the land taking all the nutrients from the soil. Another major problem with it was that the topsoil was pretty much nonexistent. All the plowing over and over again took away the root systems, making impossible for the topsoil to stay in place. We all have heard about the Dust Bowl, but no one young ever understands why it really happened. That is one reason why sustainability is heard to keep under control, because if we don’t fully understand the big mistakes made by the generations before us, how will we know not to make the same mistakes as they did. The Dust Bowl could have been prevented, but who knew that the topsoil

The audience of this book is presumed to be the general person who is not fully intact with the ideas that he or she is disrupting the ecosystem and is not aware of the effects they are doing as a whole. The book argues that no ecosystem is completely inert as things such as climate changes or drought can also affect the enviorment. Without human interaction an environment can still have issues, but the introduction of human life and economy does take a grave toll on the climate. These are irreversible effects that mankind are doing to the ecosystem. The English

The concept of sustainability is about the capacity of the environment to continue to support our lives and the lives of other living creatures into the future. There are a number of programs to restore the river to maintain communities, fisheries and navigation, to ensure long-term sustainability.

Leopold’s land pyramid describes the hierarchical dynamics of the biotic community. Based upon what we learned in class, a biotic community is the relationship between soil and animals. It is a sum of all the parts within the community. The pyramid represents layers within the biotic community. The bottom layer is the soil. A plant layer rests upon the soil layer, an insect layer lies atop the plants, a bird and rodent layer rests upon the insects. The pyramid works its way up the various animal groups until it finally comes to the peak layer, which consists of the lager carnivorous animals. Leopold places humans in the top layer.

Sustainable development means that the present generations should be able to make use of resources to live better lives in such a manner that it does not compromise the ability of future generations. For sustainable development to occur, there needs to be sustainable economic, ecological and community development. Society needs to be educated about ways in which they can use resources, especially natural, in such a manner that it does not cause harm to the environment and put future generations lives at risk.

Ecology today can be defined as “the study of the interrelationships between living things and their environment”. It is important to understand that when we say that ecology includes the “environment”, we are talking about everything that is external to an organism, all the biotic and abiotic. Nowadays it also attempts to understand and explain the how and why of the origins and mechanisms of interactions.

True community development exemplifies the relationship between the local actor and the interconnectedness that needs to exist to accomplish change.

To giving a definition for social sustainability, Oxford Institute for sustainable development claim that social sustainability is to taking care of individual, societies and communities live together as a whole and start to achieve the ideal developments for themselves, and also look into the relationship between the particular territory of themselves and the planet. In Practical way, Social Sustainability start arises by taking action to extend the social aspect of individuals and societies, which include capacity and skill developments to environmental and spatial inequalities. Which also include the traditional social policy aspects and principles, for instances, the equity of human rights and health, as well as human needs, social capital, economy, living environment, the consideration of happiness, wellbeing and the quality of life.

Sustainability is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations” (Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future 1987). The concept of sustainability comprises of four pillars: environmental; economic; political and social; as can be seen in the image below. Environmental sustainability is the use and management of the environment in a way that it does not deplete our finite resources. Economic sustainability is a long term sustainable economy that supports its community and political sustainability is the collaboration of different bodies of government to achieve a sustainable future. Now social sustainability is hard to define as it encapsulates many different factors; however to be very broad it is to achieve social justice. The real objective for sustainability is that all four pillars work together equally in a precautionary principle;

Urbanization, which is becoming a buzzword during the last few decades, is enlarging at a booming speed. It is predicted that 93 percents urban growth will occur to the year 2020, in the developing world (Elliot J.A, 1999). Generally speaking, more than half of the people around the world have been moved to cities, which led to a series of “matters” connected with people’s life that changed in a dramatical way. In this period, sustainable development, another buzzword during the past few years, came into people’s view and gradually became the mainstream of society development. Its definition is to make the development continue in a long term, which means allowing appropriate economic growth and industrialization without