What is Sustained Development
What Is Sustainable Development? Sustainable
Development Definition The simplest definition of sustainable
development comes out of the UN's Commission on Environmental and
Development conference held over a decade ago. It is defined as
"development that meets the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their needs" became the
definition of sustainable development.
Five years later, in 1992, the Earth Summit in Rio was the first summit
to look at the progress made towards the goal of achieving sustainable
development, and each of the five global conferences since then has
addressed sustainable development in one way or another.
The Debate Over Sustainable Development The debate continues as to
whether or not the three components of sustainability, the environment,
economic development and social equity can ever be equally joined. Many
people, especially the environmentalists, feel that sustainable
development cannot be achieved due to the huge scope of the problem.
Despite the negativity, many countries are actively working towards the
goal of a sustainable future.
The United States created the President's Council on Sustainable
Development, which has representatives from environmental organizations,
business and the government sectors. They have developed policies to
promote a growing economy, coupled with a healthy environment, which is
essential to our national and global security.
Everyone seems to agree that it is essential that all groups work
together to improve the quality of life on our planet. We must develop
efficient ways to use our natural resources, protect our global commons,
manage human settlements, manage our chemicals, and our waste and
achieve sustainable economic growth. How this is to be accomplished is a
matter of hot debate.
Sustainable Development Gains Attention Fortunately, sustainable
development is gaining attention. A Google search returns 23 million
instances of the word sustainable development on the Internet. The term
is becoming so well recognized that it is often shortened to "SD". Yet,
despite its growing popularly, the definition remains vague and
difficult to define.
After World War II, four common threads emerged as values the world's
people want to achieve. These values are peace, freedom, development and
the environment. World summits that have been held since then, have
taken into account these four common threads and sustainable development
has evolved. The three components, environment, economic and social
spheres, overlap and no sphere can exist alone. Whether sustainable
development is thought of as a goal, a concept or a movement, SD is
taking hold on the international, national, corporate, city and local
level. Encompassing all the components of sustainable development
remains a complex issue. Everyone has their own idea of what SD is and
how it can be achieved.
The Sustainable Development Future What it all boils down to is that we
as individuals and the world in general must be sure that our activity
does not cause our natural resources to be used up faster than it can be
replaced. Using up our resources faster that they can be replaced
naturally will, in theory, lead to a situation where the planet is
incapable of sustaining human life. The ultimate result of this
catastrophic failure could result in the extinction of the human.
So what is sustainable development? The complete answer is not clear and
may never be, but the direction we should be headed is getting clearer
all the time.
About the author
Beverly Saltonstall writes on topics concerning the environment and the travel industry. She has also written articles that have been published in a world wide boating publication. The author mainains an environmental website at http://sustainable-development-forecast.com as well as a blog at http://sustainable-development-forecast.com/blog. A free report, "Our Planet Is In Danger" is available on the website