Saturday, April 28, 2012

Based on what you have learnt in sustainable development (environmental geography) - reflect on how the current development is unsustainable, and/or how development can be more sustainable that it is now


  Global Sustainable Development is a process whereby development is met of the present needs without compromising the ability of development of the future generations. These needs consist of the limitations of technology, social organizations regarding environment’s potential to meet the needs globally. It is a way to ensure the growth of a city while wisely preserving land and resources. The current state of earth’s natural resources is in a risky state; these resources include water, land surfaces biodiversity and even the atmosphere. Due to the need for natural resources, instead of maintaining such resources for sustainable development in the near future, the natural resources are slowly being washed out by the current generations and thus making it a unsustainable development.

  The people of current generations are slowly exploiting the little amount of natural resources left in the world. The exploitation of water and it will be used up by the year 2025. The use of lands to build new and modern agriculture, it has received an increase from 1.8 tons to 2.5 tons of cropland. Such increases of exploitation could cause the lands of this world to be degraded as well as less productive. The current generations are also causing air pollution that might cause damage to the atmosphere; more than 2 million people are already suffering at the current stage of air pollution per year.

  Although there are many causes as to why the current generation’s development is unsustainable, there is always room for improvement. Such improvement for impactful climate changes for environment sustainability includes recycling products to save the natural resources. For instance, when used stationary, plastic, metal scrap or even paper, we could actually purchase recycled materials or even leave it to get recycled after use. Such small act could make a difference in the current environment as well as for the future generations. Mainly by using recycled paper, more trees would be saved and therefore more trees and plants to refresh the current polluted air. Though using recycled materials could be useful to the environment, there are much more thing that we could do the help in environment sustainability. Even computers or even electronics could be sent for recycling instead of leaving them for dumping in the landfill.

  We could also start by using less fossil fuels as such resources are non-renewable compared to the likes of paper or plastic. Fossil fuels are usually converted into coal, oil or natural gas when being burned. Thus, causing a huge release of C02 into the atmosphere and cause air pollution. With air pollution rising, it is also damaging the earth’s ozone layer and is getting it closer to global warming. This is also one of the reasons why car developer companies are slowly trying to create fuel efficiency cars and even electrical cars to make them both functional as well as more environmental friendly. By polluting the environment with chemicals that are used daily, it could affect our human body system as well. Such product that includes harmful chemical includes personal care products, pest control products and even plastic products. Some of these products that produces toxins are both harmful to our human body as well as the environment. We could also try to lower down the current population as there are currently 6.8 billion people alive on earth and if the current population keeps the current increase rate, there would be an estimated amount of 8.1 billion by the year 2025. Therefore, the need of such natural resources will seek an increase amount as well. By the time it has reached to such a large number of populations, it would be as good as impossible to recover from such environmental unsustainable development. This is a sign that we should start acting soon before it’s too late. We should also keep in mind that such changes include social, cultural and economic factors.

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