Although there is no formal definition for the term, individuals have tried to define sustainability according to their function or area of study. The term “sustainability,” once an obscure ecological concept, has now been adopted by many in the business world to connote the principles of social and environmental responsibility (Joseph Fiksel, Jonathan Low and Jim Thomas). Further, sustainability can be seen through the eyes of business as a way to create value. More likely than not, the term sustainability can be linked to the ability of decreasing costs, wastes and inefficiencies. According to the vice president of General Electric,
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.
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.
In the 1970’s there was growing confusion regarding environmental policy due to certain states creating environmental protection laws which were largely ineffective. To ease confusion, fix national guidelines, and monitor and enforce them President Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA functions under three federal departments: the Interior, Agriculture, and Health, Education and Welfare departments. The original role of the EPA was to administrate the Clean Air Act which was enacted to reduce the air pollution caused by vehicles and industry. The EPA has since grown to enforce at least 12 major statutes such as: ocean dumping laws, safe drinking water, insecticides, and asbestos hazards in
Sustainability can be defined as a method of harvesting or using of a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged. We must fundamentally excel in our research and studies to assure we are demonstrating all the correct, yet safe, practices in order to maximize the benefits of food and agriculture. The oil & gas sector can be labeled as very controversial. While one can insist it helps strengthen our economy and also keeps us from exporting from other countries, another could argue it is very harmful to our
The environment and climate change have recently become high profile issues, but that does not mean they haven’t been issues in the past. In 1903, Theodore Roosevelt created the National Wildlife Refuge System is the system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America's fish, wildlife and plants. In 1970, Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency protecting human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws. The Bush and Obama administrations had different stands on a lot of issues, and it’s no different when it comes to issues regarding the environment.
President Richard Nixon officially created the Environmental Protection Agency, otherwise noted as the EPA, in the spring of 1970. However, concern for the environment and its protection began long before the government regulatory body. In years prior, environmentalism had planted its roots as a growing focus of many American citizens. Before the focus on the environment as we know it, there were multiple individuals who stressed the importance of nature and brought attention to the degradation of the environment through industrialization. Famous literary scholars first expressed their concern during the 1850’s—a direct response to the Industrial Revolution. Henry David Thoreau, with his ode to nature through Walden, or Life in the Woods, captured the importance of nature in a transcendental sense; while later in the nineteenth century, John Burroughs took a more realistic approach with his 27 volumes of essays on his experience with nature. In 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal brought the sense of ecology into government acts; among which were The Soil Conservation Service—reducing the effects of erosion on agricultural land, and the Pittman-Robertson Act, responsible for funding state fishing and wildlife programs from taxes on hunting and fishing equipment.1
The EPA has the responsibility of keeping the American people's food pure and their health up to par. By the year 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency will have prevented over 230,000 premature deaths since 1990. The EPA provides many benefits for the everyday person that people usually do not recognize or just take for granted. For instance, thank the EPA for the clean water flowing into the sink and the disease free meat at the grocery store. Recently the White house decided to slash EPA funding by 31%. The EPA provides many benefits to be cutting their funding by such an amount. Not just to humans, but to the wildlife all around the country. It is likely that many species would have been extinct or endangered by know without the protection
Saving the environment wasn’t always the goal of the government, but in the last couple of years the government has implicated some rules to make the environment better, but some don’t believe that the environment is deteriorating. Even though cleaning the environment was a major initiative in the 1970’a recently the government hasn’t done much to improve the environment. In the article “How the U.S. Protects the Environment, From Nixon to Trump” by Robinson Myers, the author talks about what President Nixon has done for the environment and the laws he has enforced to make the environment more efficient. Also, the article discusses how the EPA plays a role in helping the environment and if the laws have helped the environment. Richard Nixon
Our American society believes that forests in the United States are not managed sustainably. Yet, our forests are being managed for sustainability through sound application of science, commitment from individual landowners, and viable markets for products from the forests. Everything we do and everything we need to survive comes from the environment, so sustainability is what we as humans can do to make sure the environment is sustained well enough for future generations.
citizens to follow to make our world safer and to protect it for the future
On December 2nd of 1970, President Richard Nixon established an organization to solve the growing problem surrounding the state of the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency, commonly known as the EPA, was created with the mission to establish and enforce environmental protection standards, conduct environmental research, provide assistance in eliminating pollution, and recommend new policies for environmental protection to the president. One of the influences that contributed to the development of the EPA was an article in Science magazine. Through his article The Tragedy of the Commons, Garrett Hardin conveyed the amount of damage that humans had caused to the environment. He made it clear that humans will exploit Earth’s natural
“America has a problem and the world has a problem,” (Friedman 1) and this problem stems from our effect on the environment. As America lives off of the land and improve it for our needs, we are not taking into consideration our need for a clean environment. Pollution and weakening species are continuing to plague our world, creating unsafe and unhealthy conditions for all life on planet earth. Although, recent years have shown small progress into improving the environment’s condition, the United States has not been able to pick up true and steady growth on the green movement. The United States’ environment will continue to dwindle until the mass mobilization of environmentalism is completely backed by governmental authority.
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
In todays world, there are a fair share of groups with opposing viewpoints as well as mindsets, which often leads to conflict. Certainly the forestry world has had its fare share of people in power making decisions based on whats best for them finically or personally, and not what is best for the community and/or forest. Deep ecology includes a large majority of the same concepts in which they want to work towards the best interest of the forest and environment, and for the majority focus on the fact that humans are interfering with the forest to much as it is, and it needs to be changed (Naess, 264). Environmental justice focuses on how currently there is an elitist membership and narrow scope in the current conventional environmental practices and tries to work towards sustainability(Gottlieb 1993). When both of these collide they create what is knows as “Wicked Problems”, they go beyond scientific, economic, and techno-rational analysis and methods of problem solving ( Nie 307). Hence is is difficult to know when said conflict has been solved, “ We use the term ‘wicked’ in a meaning akin to that of ‘malignant’ (in contrast to ‘benign’) or ‘vicious’ (like a circle) or ‘tricky’ (like a leprechaun) or ‘aggressive’ (like a lion, in contrast to the docility of a lamb)”(Rittel and Webber 1973: p. 160)