Where, Environmental Science Social Isuse 21 Hits - anbu arasu - Aug 8, 2022, 4:51 PM

The term sustainable was development and introduced by the World Commission on Environment and Development (The Brushland Commission), in its seminal report of 1987, Our Common Future. The concept has terrifically worked out in creating public awareness for sustaining the planet with better management. The sustainable development has been defined as “meeting the need of the present generation without compromising the needs of future generation”. The concept precisely emphasizes upon using the earth resources judiciously and compensating for it in some sense, e.g. if cut few trees to support our lives, we should also implant some new ones at some site. This would result in. maintaining the earths fine balance between resource consumption and resource generation. The literal meaning of sustainability is “that can be maintained” or “keep a goal continuously”. In ecological sense, it refers to “conservation of ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources”. Hence, we can understand it as something, which has got to do with longevity (long life) of a resource, commodity, species, ecosystem, earth etc. The literal meaning of development is “the act or instance of growth/advancement”. So the growth can be of many types viz., growth of education, growth of industry, growth of population, growth of forests and many others. But what type of growth are we addressing to? Here we are addressing to one of the most sensitive issue of growing concern about improving the well-being of human beings. This could be achieved only through compromising with some of our comforts and luxuries. The generation of comforts and luxuries brings the environment under great pressure. The Nation's economic growth should not stand upon the fragile foundation of earth’s resources. In the context of economical and technical development, the world always had been better today than yesteryear and will always be better tomorrow than today. But the condition of environment will always be poorer than before. Hence, the concept of sustainable development raises certain questions for the present generations to answer. What is our present? Are we happy with our present? Prospective changes of the magnitude described above raises fundamental questions about the kind of world we will bequeath to our children and about the nature and goals of development. The present in which we live is important as it shapes our future. Nothing much can be done to recover the damages imposed on nature in the past. But if we shape our surroundings based on environmental ethics and economically exploit our present environment, we would lend a healthier tomorrow to our children. As we have examined some environmental issues in the previous chapters, we would commonly agree that human population growth, loss of biodiversity, habitat destruction, ozone depletion, global climate change, pollution (air, water, noise etc.) and limited food & energy supply are environmental concerns of global scale. In the past two decades a great deal of work from researchers, ecologists, environmental scientists, social scientists, geographers and demographers have build up a very clear picture of what our tomorrow would be like: Some initiatives have been taken up both at government and non-government level. Still promising, environmental concern at individual level is far lacking beyond sustainable needs. Although population growth continues to expand at an unsustainable pace but still certain countries have achieved a demographic transition to zero population growth. However, positive signs from developing nations are still absent. We have achieved breakthroughs in renewable energy sources,agroforestry schemes and better pollution control advancements. Increased man awareness, resourcefulness and enterprise will help eliminate poverty and resource wastage and will make our environment a much better place to live in. Until environmental concerns do not find space in our heart, we would never be able to delicately handle our surroundings when we are at home or public. We should recognize things at personal and collective grounds to protect nature and to create a sustainable environment.