Chapter 2: Environmental Protection and Sustainability
2.1 Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development
Increasingly, environmental protection is being incorporated more broadly into all human
actions and into the process of development. Meeting our needs while protecting the
environment is called sustainable development.
The Evolution of Environmental Protection
Environmental protection has evolved from piecemeal local efforts to a much more
comprehensive global strategy involving high levels of cooperation among states and
nations covering a wide assortment of environmental problems.
The Next Generation of Environmental Protection Efforts
Although environmental policy and environmental protection efforts have evolved
dramatically in the past three decades, most solutions dealt with symptoms. Efforts are
now under way to address the root causes of the problems.
Creating Sustainable Solutions
All environmental problems result from the fact that human systems such as energy
production and agriculture are unsustainable. They are inefficient in their use of
resources, and most of them rely heavily on finite supplies of fossil fuels whose
combustion creates many problems.
2.2 Meeting Human Needs While Protecting the Environment
What is Sustainable Development?
Sustainable development is a means of meeting present needs in ways that do not impair
future generations – and other species – from meeting their needs. Because the
environment is essential to satisfying the needs of present and future generations,
environmental protection is a key to its success.
Satisfying the Triple Bottom Line
Sustainable development requires strategies that satisfy social, economic, and
environmental goals simultaneously.
Principles of Sustainable Development
Humans depend on the environment for countless goods and services that are essential to
day-to-day living and the functioning of the economy.
The renewable and nonrenewable resources that support our lives have very real limits.
Many signs that we have exceeded limits of the planet's resources are evident.
Living sustainably means finding ways of prospering within limits.
The future of the biosphere, upon which we humans depend, is in our hands.
Intergenerational equity calls on us to live in ways that honor the needs of future
generations.
Intragenerational equity calls on us to act in ways that honor the rights and needs of all
people alive today.
The notion of ecological justice says that all species have a right to a clean environment
and adequate resources.
Building a sustainable society will require participation by governments, businesses, and
individuals.
Environmental protection and sustainable development will require cooperation of all
participants.
To create a sustainable society, we must focus on strategies that address the root causes
of environmental problems.
Growth and Development: Understanding the Differences
Growth and development are fundamentally different goals. Growth results in an increase
in material production and consumption that may be unsustainable in the long run;
development is a strategy that calls for improvements in culture that do not necessarily
require further increases in resource consumption, pollution, and environmental
destruction.
2.3 Human Settlements: Networks of (Unsustainable) Systems
Human settlements are made up of many interdependent systems, such as transportation,
energy, and waste management. Growing evidence shows that these systems are not
sustainable in the long run.
2.4 Why Are Human Systems Unsustainable?
Although human systems may provide us with a steady stream of goods and services,
they are systematically reducing the carrying capacity of the planet. Human systems (1)
produce pollution in excess of the planet’s ability to absorb and detoxify wastes, (2)
deplete nonrenewable resources faster than substitutes can be found, and (3) use
renewable resources faster than they can be regenerated.
The Challenges Ahead
To create a sustainable future, we must revamp the systems that support our lives. The
challenge is twofold: to retrofit existing systems to make them as sustainable as possible
and to build new systems using the principles of sustainable design.
2.5 Applying the Principles of Sustainable Development
Operating Principles
Creating a society that is sustainable requires a number of steps: (1) population
stabilization, (2) growth management, (3) efficiency, (4) renewable energy use, (5)
recycling, (6) restoration, and (7) sustainable resource management.
Applying the Operating Principles to Human Systems
The systems approach streamlines the sustainable development process. It provides a
framework to organize and address complicated issues. Systems are often interdependent;
thus, decisions in one system often affect others. People involved in drafting sustainable
development plans are encouraged to group interrelated systems and tackle them
together.
Sustainable development will require root-level solutions.