Climate Change And Depletion Of Natural Resources

The most commonly used definition of sustainable development is still that given in the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), i.e. sustainable development is ‘a process to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’ Sustainable development is therefore about creating a better life for all people in ways that will be as viable in the future as they are at present. In other words, sustainable development is based on principles of sound husbandry of the world’s resources, and on equity in the way those resources are used and in the way in which the benefits obtained from them are distributed (Making Tourism More Sustainable, 2005).

The definition of sustainability is the ability to support a long term ecological balance while not harming the environment or depleting its natural resources. According to Robert Goodland and his essay “The Case that the world has reached limits” the world is currently being run unsustainably, “being fueled by inherited fossil fuels is the best single example” (Goodland 602). Fossil fuels are non renewable gases and oils and we are using them to provide 60 percent of the global energy, because of the extensive usage of these nonrenewable fossil fuels, we barely have fifteen years left of reserves. Goodland uses his essay to build on Brundtland’s leads to gain and maintain sustainability, claiming that we need a “new era of economic growth” to meet the needs of sustainability (Goodland 602). Goodland

The U.S. energy policy is not sustainable in that a vast majority of the energy consumed comes from finite resources like oil, coal, and natural gas. While the continued use of these sources pollutes and contributes to global warming an even larger issue is emerging for the future generations of the earth, what to do when all fossil fuels have run out or come to the point where their extraction and development is economically unfeasible? There is no doubt that renewable energy will have to become the primary source of power for the U.S. and the world at some point in the future and increased research, development, and use of these technologies now will

The topic of sustainable development has been a pressing and sustainable issue pertaining to environmental politics for several decades. The federal government of Canada has acknowledged the issue of globalization and

The term sustainability is one that been conceptualized since the early civilizations of humans inhabited the earth. During those primative times, everything that allowed civilizations to thrive came from the earth. Humans during those times were more more in touch with their reliance on the environment. In today's society, the reliance on our natural environment seems much further away due to our insulation from modern conveniences. Nevertheless, this conception could not be further from the truth; we are more reliant now on the world's renewable resources than ever before.

Sustainable development is defined as “Development that meets the needs of the present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (IISD, par. 1 ).

In the common language, ‘western countries’ refer to western European countries and the U.S. for their economic model and their level of development. However, when it comes to politics of energy, an interesting gap between the U.S. and its European brothers and sisters appears. An interesting example is Portugal who, according to the New York Times, already collects 45% of its electricity from renewable energy sources, compared to 12% in the United States.

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.

The word sustainability has been defined ‘as the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their needs’ (Mansdorf, 2010).

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;

Resources throughout the United States are being exhausted an alarming rate. In fact, “95% of the original forests in the United States are now gone” (DiCaprio).Personally, I think this is a shocking and eye opening statistic. The statistic really gives you an insight on how much of the natural world humans have used in order to sustain the lifestyles they currently live. However, people cannot continue to use natural resources at the current rate because they won’t be able to sustain us for the future. One component that is affecting our resources is climate change. Countries all over the world are experiencing changes in their climates that have caused droughts and conflicts over natural resources, such as water and oil. Additionally, a changing climate will cause healthcare systems all over the world to adapt to treating new diseases (Richardson, et al. 44).

Sustainable development is defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987). The term address problems such as environmental pollution, depletion of non-renewable resources and climate change.

The concept of environmental security although introduced in 1960’s (in the framework of International Relations), became mainstream in 1990’s after the end of cold war which ushered in an era of intellectual instability in the field of security studies introducing a variety of new agendas within the security discourse, including the environment, economy, and, more recently, terrorism (Michel and Pandya 2009).. Alexander Bell in his book Peak waters describes three broad types of environmental concerns which are; global warming, environmental degradation, and resource scarcity. For the purpose of this review, the focus will be on resource scarcity. There are two types of resource scarcity one that is Malthusian in nature and the second is

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

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