Environmentalism And Sustainable Development

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).

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 ).

The definition of sustainability varies widely depending on the context in which the concept of sustainability is used. As Herman Daly (1996) put it, “Sustainable development is a term that everyone likes, but nobody is sure of what it means. The term rose to the prominence of a mantra after the publication of the UN sponsored Brundtland Commission report entitled, Our Common Future.” The Brudndtland Commision (1987) that Daly was referring to defined the term as “development that meets the needs of the present

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 need to link the economical development with a greater concern about our planet gave birth to a new concept of sustainable development, which identifies a progress compatible with the preservation of the environment and resources for the future generations.

Sustainable development suggests the implementation of state-imposed limitations, with the purpose of reducing the amount of resources and space we overtake and ultimately, the amount of damage we cause to our planet’s future. It requires that we view the earth as a system that both contains space and connects time. We are all interconnected, and the selfish, wasteful lifestyle that a country might live in North America can affect people all around the world, presently even. Generally, sustainable development can be separated into sections-two of them being social and environmental. Social sustainability places emphasis on the importance of public policy-making. It requires a political framework that consists of six areas-natural resource management, measurement and assessment, international trade and investment, climate change and energy, economic policy and communication technologies. Environment sustainability is concerned with the diversity and productivity of natural environments, and requires our generation to innovate activities so that they cause minimal harm to our natural environments. Our future on this earth will directly depend on our ability to introduce and implement the sustainable development techniques discussed in these fundamental sectors.

Sustainable development is at the heart of the National Planning Policy Framework of 2012, and is defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development includes three key pillars- social, environmental and economic, however in reality these issues often overlap and do not fit directly into one category (Hopwood, Mellor and O’Brien, 2005).

Sustainable development is a vehicle to permute many and varied corporate and institutional interest whilst giving impression of adherence to and observation of environmentally sound principles (David and Santillo 2007)

In the 1987 Bruntland report, researchers defined sustainability as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.” (Our Common Future 1987). This definition receives some criticism by scientists

Sustainable development. A concept that has only recently become highlighted and pursued by the international community. In a country like Nigeria, there is focus on economic growth on the sustaining of their people, not the interest of the environment, however this trend is beginning to change as the country is moving toward a future of power from alternative sources, such as solar power and wind power (Our Objectives, n.d.). Sustainable development, according to the Brundtland Report, “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to the meet their own needs.”(IISD) The United Nations has been at the forefront of this drive for a more sustainable, namely with the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which highlight not only environmental aspects, but also societal (human right-based) (e.g. No Poverty, focus on Gender Inequality). Prior to the creation of the SDGs, were the Millennial Development Goals (MDGs) during the beginning of the 21st Century, which eventually became the SDGs. The SDGs implemented several new points that seemingly “filled the gaps”, so-to-speak, left by the MDGs. These goals were adopted in September of 2015 with an expected fruition date of 2030 (Madeley 2015).

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

Sustainable development is about meeting the needs of today without over-using the resources for future. It requires the integration of environmental, economic and social priorities into policies and programs[b]. It is different from green growth as green growth does not take social priorities into account which means that green growth is more focusing on improvement of quantity but sustainable development focusing more on quality of human’s life experience.

Before continuing towards the discussion of the connection between climate change and sustainability, the term ‘sustainable development’ or ‘sustainability’ will be explained first. The term ‘sustainable development’ is relatively similar with the term ‘sustainability’ and both can be interpreted from variety of aspects. Due to the work of World

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