Sustainability

Sustainability is everything we need for our well-being and survival. It also “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” (What is sustainability? 1). Sustainability makes sure that we have materials, resources, and the water to protect our environment and human health. Sustainability gives us the ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely.
In my opinion, a major issue with our environment is overpopulation. Sometime during 2011, the population is expected to reach seven billion. The rapid increase is is overwhelming the planet’s finite resources. Biodiversity is also being effected because of the growing human numbers. As the population multiplies, the demand for water, land, trees, and fossil fuels multiplies as well. Because of overpopulation, pollution has become a major problem. People drive more cars, throw away more trash, use more electricity, and cut down more trees, which causes pollution to increase.
We can reduce our population to a sustainable level by educating all people, a societal commitment to ensuring that all species are given a chance to live and thrive, and universal access to birth control. Also, “the mission of the Center for Biological Diversity is to stop the planetary extinction crisis wiping out rare plants and animals around the world” (Overpopulation: A Key Factor In Species Extinction 1). Family planning is also another way to prevent population from growing. Lastly, we need to educate the human population about the seriousness of overpopulation. Everyone knows how to help the environment, how to avoid AIDS, and that smoking is bad, but they do not know about the severity of overpopulation.
-Brooke S.

Sustainability

Sustainability involves studies to make sure consumed resources and a healthy environment are maintained through time to protect human health. concerns have arisen recently in response to rapid growth in the world's population. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is active in working with issues and explaining how common people can make a difference in their everyday lives.
The EPA strives to make companies and households aware of issues such as excess waste and air pollution and how to fix them. Hazardous wastes can be results of processing and manufacturing as well as pesticides and cleaning supplies. Putting household hazardous wastes in the trash is allowed by law, but now many communities have collection programs to keep the contaminants out of the common trash and disposed of in a safer manner. Regular household trash includes food scraps, bottles, newspaper, etc. Much of the household trash can be recycled, and if done so properly, trash can be cut back by a large amount and reducing the amount of garbage entering landfills.
Learn The Issues (EPA)

A non-profit organization called A World Institute for s Sustainable Humanity (A W.I.S.H.) provides support for life sustaining activities and mix solutions for poverty and environmental problems. Some of these projects include safe drinking water around the world, safer farming practices, and increased use of solar power.
A W.I.S.H.

One of the biggest issues would be change in the world's climate. As human actives increase, the concentration of greenhouse gasses increase. the greenhouse gasses are a result of burning fossil fuels for energy to operate automobiles and power cities. as the population grows, the demand for fossil fuels increases and creates more greenhouse gasses. These greenhouse gasses trap heat from the sun in the atmosphere, raising overall global temperatures. This leads to extreme weather conditions like droughts, flooding, storms and tornadoes.
http://www.sustreport.org/issues/climate_ch.html

The DESERTEC Concept is based on the idea that within six hours, a desert receives more energy from the sun than humans can use in a year. This project also emphasizes on the proper placement of power plants in areas where clean natural energy is abundant. DESERTEC attempts to fill increasing energy needs and reduce emissions.
DESERTEC

Sustainability

Sustainability is the endurance of change. This is very important for people and the earth today because the earth is always changing. With human’s constant research and development there is always new impacts on the earth. The sustainability of the earth is very important because people are constantly changing the way they treat the earth.

Before we knew about the thinning ozone layer, we were doing nothing to protect it; now however, we are trying to protect it, having learned what harm we have done to it. It has been known that aerosol cans have thinned out the ozone so these days less and less of those have been made, replaced with squirt bottles it is much better for the ozone layer. We have also caused much pollution to the air and water. This has caused many problems for the earth and its creatures, and while there is awareness of this happening, not everyone is helping the cause. There are new laws in order to reduce air and water pollution for all ecosystems, however it is still happening. One major innovation that will help change this is electric cars and not always using fossil fuel in order to run. In order to maintain sustainability of the earth all people need to become part of this cause to help the environment. (Hyperlink A)

The earth has had to sustain from no cars and big industrial buildings letting out air pollution with every move they make, to the world crowded with cars and big industrial buildings. The other big issue is deforestation, which is the clearing of the forests which trees are used for paper, houses, etc. This has had a huge affect on the whole environment, all ecosystems. This is being helped by all the new technology eliminating much of the use of paper materials. However, this is not used to the full affect that it could be and it would help very much to eliminate almost all paper materials by putting most books, textbooks, magazines, etc. onto paperless materials such as Ipads, Kendals, Tabs, etc. Technology like this has helped deforestation in the past few years, if it becomes more widespread though, it could help so much more. (Hyperlink B)

Things such as Earth Day, the hour that we turn off all of our lights, the EPA, and many other things are all steps for a more sustainable earth that we can still live on happily. (Hyperlink C) We have done many irreversible things to this earth’s environment and ecosystem that we can not take back, however we are taking actions to protect the earth and ecosystems that will keep the earth sustainable years from now.

Hyperlink A: http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/air-pollution/

Hyperlink B: http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestation-overview/

Hyperlink C: http://www.emagazine.com/archive/2481

Lindsay E

Sustainability

Sustainability is a growing problem that needs to be addressed before it is too late for our Earth, and its population. The definition of sustainability can be applied to many different things but in this case the environment is the subject. Sustainability is the ability to maintain something, or to support the weight of an object. The global population has recently begun to realize that that in order for the Earth to sustain life it needs to be taken care of. This concept proves to be more difficult then in seems because it requires the human race to change our ways when we are all creatures of habit.


One of the more prominent issues facing the world today is air pollution. Many of our everyday activities affect the problem more then we would care to realize. London is the perfect example of the horrifying predicament. Many activists are dedicated to the cause because there were "4, 267 premature deaths in 2008 [that] were attributed to long-term exposure to air pollution." (Hyperlink A) The government of London was supposed to pass laws that would reduce the amount of air pollution, but they have yet to concur this issue. A tentative coarse of action is in place but health officials are sceptical of this plan because the government has been attempting to create a solution since 2005. This lack of solution continues to anger the citizens of London as they protest this horrible pollution.


One unlikely effort that people can make to better sustain our planet is to shop at the local fame rs' markets. This may seem like an odd thing to do but it assists the local economy and most of the products at these markets are organically grown. This difference in growing helps the Earth because the farmers do not use any chemicals to enhance their plants thus decreasing the pollution in the soil and the air. The smaller scale growth also does not require all of the massive equipment that omits carbon dioxide so the farmers are helping to sustain the environment whilst sustaining their own local economy. (Hyperlink B)





Hyperlink A- http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/991495/air_pollution_may_be_health_timebomb_for_londons_deprived_children.html





Hyperlink B- http://greenliving.nationalgeographic.com/shopping-farmers-market-2936.html

Sustainability

Sustainability can be defined as the ability of Earth's various systems, including human cultural systems and economies, to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely.
Sustainability is an important issue that many people are concerned with. They want future generations to be able to utilize the earth's resources, without depleting them.

One of the major problems threatening sustainability today is water pollution. Water pollution not only affects much of the population today, but it will have a lasting effect on future generations to come. Bodies of water can be polluted not only through materials entering the water, but through erosion, and thermal pollution as well. With many of America's rivers and lakes so polluted that fishing is not even made possible, something must be done. Water is one of the most vital resources on Earth, and while it is renewable, the damage of pollution may not always be irreversible. In order to correct some of the damage that has already been done, the government employed the Clean Water Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act. These acts were passed to help ensure that the quality of water is safe enough to consume and utilize. Others can make a difference simply by not throwing or dumping anything into bodies of water, and helping to clean up.

Deforestation is an other issue that affects sustainability greatly. Trees all over the world serve many purposes. They are often habitats for different wildlife, but they take in carbon dioxide in order to grow. With an average of 3 billion to 6 billion trees being cut down each year, we are losing trees at a startlingly rapid pace. One of the major problems associated with deforestation, is the immense amount of carbon being released back into the atmosphere. This release contributes largely to depleting the ozone layer, and altering the climate. In order to fix this problem, the protection of forests, re-forestation, and sustainable logging are necessary. Organizations like the International Tree Foundation and The Arbor Day Foundation are dedicated to replanting trees all over the world, and ensuring that there will still be trees for the future.

I believe that sustainability is something that most of us strive for, and it is something that is achievable as well. If everyone took little steps to improve the quality of our world, that would still make a large difference. We should try to make our world a sustainable place to live in, not only for ourselves, but for future generations to come.

http://www.mbgnet.net/fresh/pollute.htm

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/climate-change/science/deforestation/

Raghda A.