By most accounts, our relationship with the planet could almost be described as parasitic – we use its resources for our own benefit, causing it harm. We live without much regard to its overall health, and since humanity will not be leaving colonizing distant planets anytime soon, we will never stop affecting the planet’s health. According to the Global Footprint Network, if everyone on Earth lived like North Americans, humanity would need five Earths.
If everyone on Earth lived like North Americans, humanity would need four more of these (NASA)
Environmental indicators of our gross misuse of Earth’s resources are aplenty. Reduced air and water quality have been attributed to millions of human deaths per year. The world has seen an unprecedented number of extinctions since the year 1900 because of anthropogenic impacts. Food shortages have already arrived in many areas of the planet – the list of negative impacts could go on for days. Some things will simply not change in our lifetimes because of the throwaway culture that societies around the world have adopted.
Despite all of the things we are doing wrong, though, are things that we can do to mitigate our impact on the Earth.
Sustainable is a word that is often associated with the green movement. However, one does not need to look beyond their own daily habits to see sustainability, or the long-term maintenance of well being, in motion. For example, to sustain oral health, a person will regularly brush their teeth and floss. To get good grades, a student cannot receive an A and then fall behind as the semester continues, and so on. Much like a person’s well-being, the planet’s health (and our fate on it) ultimately relies on sustainability. The main premise of economics is how we manage the Earth’s scarce resources to achieve the most wants. With humanity’s population topping seven billion, our demands on resources such as clean water will only continue to grow, which is reason enough to continue to open up the discussion on sustainable development.
The landmark definition of sustainable development was established in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development’s (or the Brundtland Commission) report titled Our Common Future. The United Nations body defined it as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
What Does Sustainable Mean?
In trying to answer the question ‘what does sustainable mean?’ Dr. Gordon Hickey, a professor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, relates five principles of sustainability that, if implemented, will greatly reduce our ecological footprint:
1) Intergenerational Equity, or care for future generations, represents a belief that by reducing the ability of future generations to meet their needs is that, although future generations might gain from economic progress, those gains might be more than offset by environmental deterioration. It is in the future population’s best interest that we take action now.
2) Intragenerational Equity, or care within a single generation, must be met in order to reach basic social and environmental needs. Gross disparities exist between the social and environmental quality of life of individuals, and it is in the current population’s best interest that we take action now.
3) Conservation of Biodiversity is a core objective of sustainable development. The Biological Diversity Advisory Committee of Australia states that biological resources provide us with food, medicine and industrial products. Without our protection, the basis of our economies will falter because of depleted resources.
4) The Precautionary Principle states that a lack of full scientific knowledge should not be used as an excuse to not take action in stopping potential serious or irreversible environmental damage. It also states that decisions should be guided by careful evaluation and that risks should be weighed.
5) Internalization of Environmental Costs means that companies willing to invest in technologies and equipment that aim to minimize their environmental footprint should be rewarded with either tax breaks or compensation.
