Personal Action Plan to Help Create a Sustainable Global Environment

Waukegan is a Suburb of 8 miles south of the Wisconsin boarder and north of Chicago along the lakefront. Waukegan is the 9th largest city in Illinois with a population of 88,826 people. It is the 5th largest city along Lake Michigan’s west shoreline. Waukegan has been known as the “rustbelt” of Lake Michigan. This is due to its history of industry. Through the involvement of Local & Federal Agencies, Companies and the Community Waukegan has made strides in the last 30 years to clean up 3 Superfund Sites, setting a stage for the city to Revitalize and become the “French Rivera of the Midwest” like Mayor Robert Sabonjian had envisioned in

There are three main mechanisms by which the chemical composition of groundwater, which is our natural source of drinking water, may be changed: by natural processes, by man's waste-disposal practices such as those for sanitary wastes, liquid industrial wastes, solid wastes, and radioactive wastes, and by spills, leaks, and agricultural activities and other sources unrelated to disposal. The degree of risk posed by contaminants varies according to many factors. These include the volume and toxicity of the contaminant, its concentration in the aquifer, its persistence in the environment, and the degree of human and environmental exposure to the contaminant. In addition, the number of persons affected, or likely to be affected, over time and the percentage of available groundwater both locally and regionally should be taken into consideration. If the contaminants in the groundwater exceed the standards set for drinking water by the federal government, for example, then the water is hazardous for the use for which it was designated under the standards. These standards include, however, only a limited number of chemicals, and thus they do not necessarily protect humans or the environment against either the short-term or the long-term effects of every contaminant that might be found in

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.

Water is probably the most important resource we as people have. Humans can survive without food for several weeks, but without water we would die in less than a week. On a slightly less dramatic note, millions of liters of water are needed every day worldwide for washing, irrigating crops, and cooling industrial processes, not to mention leisure industries such as swimming pools and water-sports centers. Despite our dependence on water, we use it as a dumping ground for all sorts of waste, and do very little to protect the water supplies we have.

Municipal solid wastes are leftovers made by the population such as food, plastic bottles, household wares and many more. These items referred by most as “the garage” or “trash”. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2015) In the early 1900’s, incinerators were used to burn waste however by the Mid-20th century, lawmakers enacted the first government regulations in an attempt to address increasing concerns about the environmental impact of unregulated waste management practices. With the first waste management legislation being passed in 1965, brought along the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, thus bringing us into a new world of waste management.(Vault, n.d.)

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.

The Merrimack River, which flows through New Hampshire and Massachusetts, has a long and extensive history with battling pollution. For the past few centuries, the Merrimack has been a hub for industrialization. Particularly in the 1900s, textile mills sprung up all along the river due to the ability to utilize hydropower. While this development helped many cities industrialize and grow substantially, it also has led to extreme levels of pollution in the river. Since the Environmental Protection Agency passed the Clean Water Act of 1972, the Merrimack River has significantly improved in quality. Even so, there are still waste disposal problems that plague the Merrimack. Currently, sewage waste remains a considerable concern in polluting the

Emelle, Alabama not only holds one of the biggest commercial hazardous-waste landfill in America, but African-Americans make up 90% of the population of the town. A Choctaw Native American reservation in Philadelphia, Mississippi holds a 466-acre hazardous landfill (Wright 532). These statistics have revealed the sensitive boundary between racial and social classes. Specific human factors have driven the need for change in environmental practices, such as growing human population, increased natural resource consumption, and the effluent discharges of manufacturing. This situation has resulted in a significant negative impact on world ecosystems (Dietz, Ostrom, and Stern 1907). What ties both of these critical concerns

So what is sustainability? It is the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources, and thereby supporting long-term ecological balance.

New York City, like most cities across the United Sates utilizes landfills to dispose of their waste. Fresh Kills Landfill opened in 1948 and was only intended to be a temporary landfill used for 20 years, however by 1955 it became the largest landfill in the world as it was turned into New York’s primary dumping ground for the second half of the 20th century. At the peak of operation Fresh Kills was receiving twenty barges carry 650 tons of waste each and every day. In March of 2001 Fresh Kills reached capacity and with the urging of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and local residents it was shut down. That left a big question for the Department of Sanitation as to what to do with New York City and its surrounding boroughs trash? (Fresh Kills Park Alliance)

Sustainability implies that the organization is managing in economic, ecological and socially competent ways. All organizations range on a continuum of their sustainability level with some being more sustainable than others. Generally, as Dunphy, Griffiths and Benn (Module One, Topic 1.5) point out, the more sustainable an organization is, the more they help the surrounding environment, be this local (the particular country) or macro (the world itself). The environment also reflects the sustainability ethos and situation of the organization itself.

The average human being, multiplied by the Earth’s population, would need to have about four Earths just to supply enough resources (Footprint Calculator). Thinking of people around the world, the people of the United States seem to take a lot of their life for granted. Many people when they hear of the polar ice caps melting wave it off and either don’t believe in it or believe it is not their problem. Well it is their problem and if we don’t jump on the issue soon we will not be giving our future generations much of a life. This brings me to the idea of sustainability. A simple description of the word means that what we have today we will also have tomorrow, next week, next year, or even the next lifetime. Although that is the modest version sustainability is much, much more than just that. Sustainability is derived from three main parts of the human life: environmental, social, and economic. Each being just as important as the other. Environmental is the most well-known aspect of sustainability in human life, but both social and economic take their place in keeping this Earth sustainable.

Global sustainability is multi-faceted topic and is very complex. However, at its essence, global sustainability is defined as using your resources wisely today to give your children a better life tomorrow. It is the balance between using enough to develop right now but leaving enough for future generations. For example, if we were only looking at preserving the environment and not developing it, we might use none of the resources and leave them to be. But the problem with that is that then there is no resources for us to use. On the other hand, if we were just looking to develop the land, we would use all of our resources, but then there would be no more left for the future. Thus, I want our

Every living being are directly or indirectly depend on natural environment. Sustainability helps to balance financial, social, and environmental factors to facilitate responsible business decision making over the immediate and long term. . Sustainability refers to meeting the needs of present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Oxford University press 1987, p.43). Sustainability is also being protective and aware of use of natural resources and development that meets the need of present and everything that is need for our survival and well being depends, directly or indirectly on our natural environment. According to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Sustainability is

The actual definition of sustainable development may not be accepted by everyone but what is important is the recognition that sustainable development is about the balance of the connected Es, Economy, Environment, and Equity.