SUSTAINABILITY

How would you define sustainability? Now that you have brainstormed what you think sustainability means. Create a list of the ways the area where you live tries to be sustainable.

Put into simple terms, sustainability is: “the ability to sustain” or, put another way, “the capacity to endure.”

Sustainability: Everything that we need for our survival and well- being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations.

Sustainability means more than recycling, planting trees, or driving less. Sustainability encompasses 3 pillars, or spheres: the ecological, the social, and the economic. It is a model that looks at all areas of life, the natural and the man made, and recognizes that you can’t look at any one of these without considering the others. Sustainability, and sustainable development, is about developing an ecologically aware, socially just, and economically responsible society.

Should we continue to clear cut forest for the sake of human consumption? Why should we continue to propagate our species, and life itself? Should we continue to make gasoline powered vehicles? What environmental obligations do we need to keep for future generations? Is it right for humans to knowingly cause the extinction of a species for the convenience of humanity? How should we best use and conserve the space of our environment to secure and expand life? These are ethical decisions that human beings may make with respect to the environment.

4 Main Ethics: Economic Preservationist Balanced Multiple-Use Ecology

Economic Ethic: They think that the resources on Earth should be exploited in order to make money. They are profit driven. Thinking about making money now, and don’t think about how it may effect future generations down the road. Profit and employment are important factors. Technology will be developed to help replace non- renewable resources.

Preservationist Ethic: Believe that resources can be used but only to a limited amount. There should also be large areas of wilderness preserved and left untouched.

Balanced Multiple-Use Ethic: Ideas follow closest to sustainability principles. It dictates that land can be used for a variety of economic and recreational purposes, and the resources are to be used in a way that does not deplete them for future generations.

Ecological Ethic: Nature should be left to manage the biosphere. Human resource consumption should be so small in quantities that the ecosystem will be able to self-renew (Example: Selected logging using machine-equipped helicopters)