The Evolving Challenges Of Sustainability Between Ancient And Modern Civilisations

“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).

Environmental health is concerned with the natural and built environment. The built environment includes buildings, parks, water and energy infrastructure, and transportation systems. The natural environment includes vegetation, air, water, climate, radiation, and heat.

The environment can have a positive impact on a person’s health. However, in order for that to happen we have to put ourselves in a place where we can get those positive responses. Sternberg explains that everyone needs to heal. Our senses allow us to heal, so nature plays a very important role in our life. We have to go somewhere that feels welcoming to us, somewhere where we can find peace, such as walking through gardens.

Humans have constantly struggled to manage resources for 50,000 years, ever since they developed inventiveness, hunting skills, and efficiency. When they fail to manage and they destroy the environment around them. Diamond discusses eight types of environmental damage: deforestation/habitat destruction, soil problems, water management problems, overhunting, overfishing, harmful introduced species, human population growth, and increased per-capita impact of people. In Diamond’s best seller, Guns Germs and Steel, he explains how human population growth and food demand are directly correlated. When the population becomes unmanageable, humans strip their land of resources. The major theme of environmental damage is simply overexploitation of

The environment is the home to all living and non-living organisms. It can be compared to a life support system that ensures the well-being of everyone. Recent cases of environmental degradation pose a threat to nature and the entire ecosystem. There has been increased awareness to educate individuals on the need to protect our environment with the aim of protecting the natural beauty and sustaining humanity.

Before diving into the essay, much content on environmental vocabulary, language, and theory is needed to understand the scope and magnitude of the thesis. Firstly, the phrase ‘natural world’, for all contexts and purposes of this essay, the phrase will mean the world outside of human’s domain. Secondly, the difference between the tiers of nature, environmental, and ecological realms. Nature will mean once

Task 1 A) Explain what is meant by the term “environment”. Environment means the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or a group of organisms. It is composed of biotic and abiotic resources. B) Describe some biotic resources that may be limited in an ecosystem at any one time.

For hundreds of years the United States has been attracting immigrants from a variety of different countries, races, and religions to come live in a land full of freedom and opportunity. These people were looking for more than just rights and privileges. Their real desire was to become something that represents pride and honor, an American. Being an American means much more than living in the United States. Along with the name come a number of different benefits such as, freedom of speech to express your own opinion, freedom of religion, and equality for all, including different sexes, races, religions and status.

As a transitive verb of sustainability, the word ‘sustain’ was first known be used in the 13th century and origin from Latin means to hold up (sus- means up, tenēre means to hold) (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, n. d.). Sustainability has first been quoted in 1953, and is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary (2017) as ‘the quality of being sustainable at a certain rate or level.’ Fleiszer et al. (2015) argue that sustainability has been identified using varied terminology. For example, continuous, ongoing, steady, constant, prolonged, persistent are terms associated with sustainability (Oxford English dictionary, 2017). The distinction between continuous and sustainability is that continuous is focused on the action carry out the innovation activity; whereas sustainability is noted to focus on maintain the causal route of the improvement of patient outcomes gained from the innovation.

Nature as w e know it means different things to different people. To an economist, natural is often seen as a resource to be transformed and put in readiness for human use. An alternative view is that humans are stewards who should care for natural things as well as making use of nature’s bounty. Another view is that nature of animism, which sees nature as a living thing, something to be respected and not controlled. Some native American’s view the earth as a sacred place could be called animist. Another alternative view is that the entire planet earth is a self correcting system based on a symbiotic relationship between the earth and the living beings(Peacock,

     As I mentioned before our environment has a great effect on our nature. For example a theory claimed that, the first humans

Nearly everything that a human does is in response to the environment. Our lives are defined by what is around us and what we find in front of us, whether this means accepting, dealing with or changing it. This has been the pattern since primates first stood up and became Homo erectus, and has continued until we considered ourselves doubly wise. The shape of the land affected where humans moved. Weather was something with which to contend. Fire affected humans until they conquered it – and herein lies the core of the relationship. The earth affects humans, and humans affect it back, viewing characteristics and patterns as problems and challenges, and finding a solution.

Environmental conditions influence cultural practices and social structures because the environment is considered a static feature and culture determines observable features in communities according to cultural determinism (Moran 2008, 31). Environmental deterministic theories were based on homeostasis according to the theorist's ethnocentricity in Greco-Roman ages (28). In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, climate was associated with physical and moral character (30). The nineteenth and twentieth centuries narrowed the explanations of environmental determinism to specific factors in the environment. Friedrich Ratzel stated humans and animals react to the environment alike and Ellsworth Huntington felt humans always take the path of the least effort (30). Moran wrote these theorists made generalizations and attempted to prove the generalizations with "unclear methodology and an inadequate sample" (31).

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

During the documentaries: Suffer the Little Children, and Educating Peter, many things were brought to attention about the treatment of Special needs individuals in the past and the more recent treatment in the school systems of the near-present. Starting with Suffer the Little Children, it is amazing that such conditions were present in the United States as the mid to late 1900s, the treatment depicted would be thought by most people, to be that of the middle-ages. Individuals were bound, beaten and subject to torture at the hands of a medical professional; forced to lie restrained in their own excrement, things thought to be fiction that would fill horror stories. However, on opposite end of the spectrum, we have the story of Peter, a child in the special needs class of his school. Peter was at first not accepted, but as time moved on, educators learned to handle his behavioral issues in a better way, and together they were able to have a happy ending; now peter enjoys school and is much better off. These documentaries bring forth things that may not have been known by the public, and create an awareness that some individuals have special needs and they have every right to the help they deserve.