Flourishing Summary Sparknotes

In order for sustainable development to be achieved, humans need to reduce their effect on the environment by consuming less in terms of resources, and living more lightly on the planet. As difficult as this may sound, there are a number of ways in which this is easily achievable. One of the most effective ways to do this is to alter the way in which we function day-to-day, and to begin to change our homes to make them more efficient in terms of resources. In addition, sustainability is not only about ensuring a future in which we can sustain our society without impacting negatively on our environment, but also but ensuring that everyone can have access to this. Therefore we must look at the triple-bottom line approach and align our movement towards sustainable development with this.

“Sustainability is a matter of long term development” (Fowler, J., Sept.24th), this is the simplest statement describes the word “sustainability” till the end of the third week lecture. After two weeks’ lecture classes and ESS lecture classes, the concept that “sustainability is not a certain technology or policy” (Introduction to Environment, Sustainability and Society, slide79) is founded in my mind. Mind Shift organization and professor Matthew Schnurr’s research taught me more specifically that sustainability is not only about the environment.

“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).

The three pillars are environmental, social and economically sustainability. However in this report, environmental sustainability will be brought to light, the two other pillars will be trivial. In order for environmental sustainability to be defined, general sustainability must be defined. Sustainability is the ability to continue a defined behaviour indefinitely (Thwink.org, 2015). For the environment, there are three aspects which must be sustained for, renewable resources, non-renewable resources and pollution. Therefore, environmental sustainability is the degree of pollution emission, renewable resource production and non-renewable resource consumption that can be continued indefinitely for future use. CAROBN

The concept of “sustainability” is a vital part of our society. Herndl compares sustainability to the concept of freedom “As you might expect, it is not easy to define a concept that

As we are constantly exposed to mass media and popular culture in our modern society, the insidious nature of consumerism has allowed it to penetrate into every aspect of our lives, dictating our very beliefs, values and wants. Nearly every individual in our society subconsciously conforms to the shallow and superficial mindset that characterises our consumerist culture. This idea is highlighted by the following texts; the poem “Enter without so much as knocking” by Bruce Dawe, an extract from the sermon “The Religion of Consumerism” delivered by Peter House, the poem “Breakthrough” by Bruce Dawe, and the

Governments, environmental agencies, and corporations alike have utilized the term “sustainability” in order to convey their respective agendas for general sustainability in environmental, social, and economic realms. In spite of their initiatives, there has yet to be a generally agreed upon, uniform definition for “sustainability.” This lack of semantic clarity has promoted skepticism among some parties, skepticism primarily focused in the legitimacy of sustainability agendas, as well as the idea of sustainability in itself (Context & Development, 1992). This essay seeks to inspect the concepts of sustainability generated by two

The purpose of this essay is to outline the argument that a ‘consumer society’ makes and remakes ‘inequality’. However, it is important to understand first what is meant by a consumer society and how ‘inequality’ relates to it. Therefore, this essay will first outline what a consumer society means before we define the term ‘inequality’ more closely.

“'To sustain' is 'to maintain the life of something'” (O'Neill 200). The basic quality of life for all sentient beings should be the foundation of sustainability in regards to the integration of human well-being and nature. Sustaining the basic quality of life for all sentient beings, present and future, will allow for flourishing of multiple dimensions of lives.

When thinking and acting like American consumers there are many ways to make better choices. Philosophers, like Wendell Berry, propose that to fix the problem we shift our ideas and create a world where we not only consider limits but also live within them. Moreover, Juliet Schor, in her alternative way of thinking, proposes some basic elements such as “a right to a decent standard of living, quality of life rather than quantity of stuff, and ecologically sustainable

For quite some time, life on earth has been nothing but peaches and cream for several people and because of people who live a non-sustainable life, it has left others with an indistinct outlook on earth’s future. Sustainability to me is doing things that will help prevent harmful things from happening to the environment now and in the future. With the support of the sustainability and more quality ways of living, the Earth Charter is gradually introduced. Through key research I will explain what the Earth Charter is and why it was founded, describe one of its four parts along with the goals and overarching philosophy, and share the impact it has on my life now and in the future.

Modern life is a life of constant attack. Organizations are continually trying to make their message heard, and sometimes by any means necessary. Marketers, corporations, etc. want the consumer to keep on buying and possessing more objects, and that having ownership of products will complete them. However, even though they promote their products or services to better your life, are they really? Religions, spiritualists, etc believe that life’s happiness is only found from within, an inner peace that satisfies. Though that seems like the logical route to happiness, they have a nemesis named capitalism. This essay will explore the having orientation, the being orientation, and a critique of capitalism in its relationship to having

What can we do to change? What can we do to stop this perpetual chain of meaningless things, people and interactions? It begins with the consumer mindset; this is what influences our identity, and our communications. When consumerism becomes something we understand and acknowledge we can then bring about change in relationships and eventually

Sustainability is a topic that has become very important in recent years. Sustainability is defined as, “the ability to continue a defined behavior indefinitely.” ("Finding and Resolving the Root Causes of the Sustainability Problem", 2014)

“It is worth emphasizing that the notion of sustainability does not in any way imply only one kind of social future as the embodiment of ‘the’ sustainable society. Environmental