The article titled What 's blocking sustainability? Human nature, cognition, and denial by William Rees brings up an important argument that human society nowadays is no longer sustainable. Human activity, therefore, seems to be maladaptive: it selects defective genes and malicious memes as well as act in such a way so that to exploit the natural resources to the point of threatening human survival in the long run. The modern techno-industrial society in this relationship to the ecosphere support the notion that Homo
Sapiens Sapiens are unsustainable.
The purpose of this article is to bring up attention of the scientists and the general population to the fact that the current stewardship of the Earth is suboptimal and that much action is to be taken to avoid our planet to be irretrievably mutilated and assure that humans do not end up in a complete misery. In other words, the article focuses on the theories that the modern society nowadays is unsustainable and keeps going at full speed towards its extinction. The article wants humans to understand the problem, and develop the appropriate solution to avoid long-term negative effects on humanity and the planet Earth.
The author provides many explanations for what is "blocking sustainability" yet they all are about the inappropriate behavior of Homo Economicus or the modern man. Modern day people are concerned with efficiency and material wealth, so they support excessive energy and resource consumption far beyond what the
Sustainability means never having to worry about a resource of any kind not being there or a constant income of resources. For example, having enough water for crops and having enough food to eat everyday. I do not think that America or any other country will be 100 percent sustainable in agriculture because we can’t control the rainfall or how much water we get each year. Also we cannot control the economy and there are so many independent variables that go into agriculture that nobody can control that it is very unlikely to ever be 100 percent sustainable. The steps needed to get 100 percent sustainability are water management, as well as land management.Another step that we have taken is our technology, in general advancements we’ve made
To begin with, people are making use of natural resources by making them into something
It is apparent that in David Orr’s essay, “Two Meanings of Sustainability,” his views of technological sustainability and ecological sustainability fall beneath two distinct archetypes, as defined by Robert Vos in “Defining sustainability: A conceptual orientation”. Textual evidence outlining Orr’s views and beliefs in regard to each type of sustainability can be found in both the assigned reading and additional works written by him. This evidence allows for a direct connection to be made between his views and one of the archetypes of Vos’ Matrix. His views on technological sustainability fall beneath the thin version of the archetype “role of technology” whilst his beliefs in regard to ecological sustainability fall beneath the thick
It is true that some of these resources produce a valuable use such as energy, in the case of petroleum, but we have exploited it too much. We use more than we are supposed until one of these days we ran out of it. We should just live with what we can and what we already have. Also I believe that some other natural resources should remain untouched by the human hands. We need to find a way to protect our environment since this our planet, our only home. We also need to change our characters. Good people still exists in the world nowadays, but the problem is that we care too much about ourselves. We want everything for ourselves. If necessary, we need to go back to the age of the gold race. Where people used to live in peace, used to respect and care for each other, where there was no
Humanity, as a species, has failed to keep our environment safe and sustained. As we advance technologically the earth is getting hotter, potentially so hot that eventually it’ll be uninhabitable(kind of like Mars). Humanity is at fault for this as around the time of the industrial revolution different fuels were being discovered and uses for them created. The use of these fuels (typically burning) cause greenhouse gasses to be trapped in the atmosphere, locking in heat. If humans didn’t have the unquenchable need for advancement, even at the cost of their own planet, we would have never had this issue.
According to Aboriginal people, sustainability is perceived as an integral component when it comes to protecting the environment. The relationship between human rights and environmental issues and rights demonstrates the need to formulate a new human right to water rights. John Barry and Kerri Woods discuss the relationship between environmental right and human rights. They question “the assumed compatibility between human right and the environment.” Barry and Woods notice that people are often willing to choose human rights at the expense of the environment. It is problematic that people who are in favour of human rights would not agree that the environment should be protected. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) clearly recognizes the importance of protecting the environment for the fulfillment and enjoyment of human rights. It is important to add environmental rights to the human rights discourse because people have a duty to future generations.
In Micah White’s “Mental Environmentalism”, the author emphasizes the detrimental effects imprudent and pervasive commercial advertising has on society and compares it to a dystopia where we are captivated by consumerism. White explains that we must maintain a healthy mental environment because our external reality is essentially a reflection of our internal world and with the way advertisements have plagued our minds, it has resulted in devastating global issues like climate change. With constant exposure to advertisements daily, our ability and potential to be imaginative and think freely is limited, both traits that are vital for a society to thrive and flourish.
In the introduction to Sustainability, Christian R. Weisser explains that sustainability is the ability for an item or idea to be maintained long-term. Specifically, Weisser describes that sustainability is the related to the correlation between human society and environmental degradation. As Weisser puts it, “as communities grow, the environment often declines” this addresses the cause and affects the human society has on the world and how understanding and using sustainability can fix that problem. For example, Weisser gives the use of disposal of aluminum cans, and how human society has advanced to reuse these resources and apply this to improve the future. Weisser insists that not only does sustainability show the relation
What is in store for the future of our planet and what actions can we take to help it?
The problems surrounding resource extraction are not uncommon to other countries. However, our country currently undermines indigenous populations for the pursuit of profit. By examining the issues discussed in the previous paragraphs,
Sustainability is defined as the ability to endure.(1) Though the idea of sustainability can be applied to most anything from a sustainable ecosystem that has survived thousands of years to a sustainable workplace that uses green technologies. Paul Hawken captured today’s connotation of sustainability in saying “Sustainability is about stabilizing the currently disruptive relationship between earth’s two most complex systems—human culture and the living world.” (2) There are countless ways to live, work, and produce sustainably. Sustainability not only needs to be practiced by citizens, but businesses need to join the green movement as well. Without creating, following, and enforcing green policies, negative effects will be evident and innumerable
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.
Dmitry Orlov held a conference titled Definancialisation, Deglobalisation, Relocalisation in 2009. His discussion mainly focused on the sustainability of our economy. Sustainability occurs when our way of living is proportionately matched with our economic standing and well-being. The sustainability rate in our country is too low and should be increased by the reserves for the production of items such as oil and fossil fuels. However, he proposed that sustainability did not need to be factored in with the fatality percentage. He strongly believes that citizens should prepare for economic hard times without an abundant amount of money, less imported goods, and the capabilities of providing their own needs. His thoughts could work in theory and could help our economy, currently, if we followed his suggestions.
In order to be an integral part in saving the Earth’s environment and ensuring resources for future generations, the way individuals live needs to change. Being fortunate enough to reside in one of the nation’s most developed countries, I wanted to make sure the way I have been living has been meeting the standards set by sustainable living. Using the overall environmental footprint provided by Global Footprint Network, I was able to pinpoint the areas in my life that needed to improve in order for me to be more sustainable. I chose to use this Footprint calculator because it gives you a breakdown on how many resources from the planet are needed in order to provide for your living standards. Once you have input the information, the calculator provides a general ecological footprint explanation and gives real case scenarios in which you can do to reduce it. The results for my footprint were as follows: If everyone were to live the way I do, we would need 5.3 planet earths to provide enough resources. It would take 23.6 global acres of land for energy production, which would emit 23.6 tons of carbon dioxide, and the biggest impacts on my personal footprint included 36 percent of services, 21 percent food and 19 percent mobility.
The Earth is a dynamic, constantly changing environment in which the hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere all interact. When one changes slightly the change is then felt through out the spheres. Humans need to understand that the change they cause can have a potential for a disastrous affect on the environment. From injecting the atmosphere with greenhouse gas, or deforestation, all the unnatural things done to the environment will have an unnatural affect that will have to be dealt with. We as humans have a moral responsibility to reduce global warming gasses by changing our modes of transportation, to stop deforestation, and increase government funding into research to inhibit global warming for