What is Sustainable Development?

You must be the change you wish to see in the world Mahatma Gandhi
The idea of sustainable development grew from numerous environmental movements in earlier decades and was defined in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission 1987) as: Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development (SD) is a pattern of growth in which resource use aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come (sometimes taught as ELF-Environment, Local people, Future). The term was used by the Brundtland Commission which coined what has become the most often-quoted definition of sustainable development as development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."[1][2] Sustainable development ties together concern for the carrying capacity of natural systems with the social challenges facing humanity. As early as the 1970s "sustainability" was employed to describe an economy "in equilibrium with basic ecological support systems."[3] Ecologists have pointed to The Limits to Growth,[4] and presented the alternative of a "steady state economy"[5] in order to address environmental concerns. The field of sustainable development can be conceptually broken into three constituent parts: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and sociopolitical sustainability. The idea of sustainable development grew from numerous environmental movements in earlier decades. Summits such as the Earth Summit in Rio, Brazil, 1992, were major international meetings to bring sustainable development to the mainstream.

Definition of sustainable development:

This contributed to the understanding that sustainable development encompasses a number of areas and highlights sustainability as the idea of environmental, economic and social progress and equity, all within the limits of the worlds natural resources. "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." The Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (UNESCO, 2001) further elaborates the concept by stating that:

one of the roots of development understood not simply in terms of economic growth, but also as a means to achieve a more satisfactory intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual existence"

It contains within it two key concepts:

the concept of 'needs', in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs."

We cannot have a ecological movement designed to prevent violence against nature, unless the principle of non-violence becomes central to the ethics of human culture.

Need for sustainable development:

Everyone wants a better place to live. Some people want better homes and housing, while other people want better schools, more jobs, better shops, or cleaner and safer streets. Others may want all these things. Whatever the problems in any neighborhood, they can usually be grouped into three issues. People need:

a better environment that means green spaces, play areas, no litter, nice gardens, decent houses, less noise and pollution. The resources used should renew over generations. a better economy that means jobs, reasonable prices, cheaper heat and light, no loan sharks better social conditions that means good leisure facilities, lots of community groups offering sports and arts, friendly neighbors.

But many people now realize that if we are to tackle one issue, then well probably have to tackle the others as well. For instance, new shops are unlikely to open in an area where crime and poverty levels are very high. Similarly crime is unlikely to fall in an area where the housing has been improved unless there are jobs available. People may move into an area where housing and jobs are available, but if the surroundings are run-down and public transport is poor, they may well not want to stay. This is not just a local issue. The same problems are faced at a national level. If the governments of the world are to deal with poverty, they do not just need to provide money and food aid, they need to help local people get educated and get jobs. People also need a safe environment with adequate homes and drinking water. To make these things work, governments also need to make sure that people have an effective voice in deciding what happens where they live. This approach is called sustainable development. While this phrase can be confusing, its now used in many government documents and in funding programmes. Sustainable development has three parts: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and sociopolitical sustainability. At the core of this idea is the matter of meeting peoples needs for a home, for a decent job, for education for their children, for good health care, and for a safe and healthy neighborhood to live in. Most people in the rich nations have most of these needs, but there are still many people living in poverty and in poor quality homes. Even if these basic needs are met there are still plenty of ways in which their quality of life is under threat: from crime, from pollution, or from living in neighborhoods where no-one in authority seems to care. Many areas have programmers to promote local sustainability: many are called Local Agenda 21 plans, named after the international Agenda 21 action plan for sustainable development agreed at the United Nations Earth Summit held in 1992.

You have to decide whether development means affluence or whether development means peace, prosperity and happiness. Sunderlal Bahuguna

Importance of sustainable development:

The main reason people are concerned with sustainable development is because of the fact that the world is a place of finite materials. One only needs to recall the buffalo that used to range across the vast majority of the American plains or the giant redwoods and sequoias that used to tower over the mountains of the west to understand that there are not endless quantities of resources on the planet. Sustainable development aims to establish a system of resource consumption that both meets the needs of human life and leaves the environment healthy enough to continue to produce the resources future generations will need.

The scope of sustainable development is massive, and many areas of life can fall under this broad umbrella. The following are some of the most important issues to sustainable development, but bear in mind that this is a very limited list:

Fresh Water - This is one of the most essential issues facing the species since humans have walked on the earth. Of the planet's water, 97.5 percent of it is salt water and of the 2.5 percent that is fresh, 2 percent of that is frozen in the polar ice caps. This means all of the humans and animals on the world survive on less the 1 percent of the planet's total water supply. The problem is that the population is increasing the demand for water while the supply is decreasing due to issues like pollution. In order to become more sustainable, humans need to take action. Agricultural systems must become more efficient worldwide and some subsidies on water that make it very inexpensive in certain areas should be lifted to allow the price to rise, which will encourage conservation. Finance - It might sound a bit too much like Karl Marx for some people's liking, but one of the main issues of sustainable development is figuring out how to best distribute the world's wealth. In the United States, for example, 10 percent of the population controls 71 percent of the wealth. The top 1 percent of American citizens control 38 percent of the country's wealth, which leaves the poorest 40 percent controlling less than 1 percent of the wealth of the nation. In a free society, disparities are always going to exist, but the problem confronting the future is that these numbers are trending towards the wealthy owning more and more. A truly sustainable society would be interested in increasing all its citizens' access to resources. Health - Health is inextricably linked to sustainable development. In areas where poverty is rampant and resources are not provided equally to all members of society, the individuals at the lower levels suffer tremendously in terms of health. Nutritious food is limited in these areas as well as access to adequate medicine and medical health professionals. When infectious diseases like AIDS are brought into the mix, this issue quickly becomes an epidemic.

These three issues are some of the most important issues to sustainable development, but other areas like agriculture, technology, sanitation, human settlements, biotechnology, and many others also play a role.