Man developed throughout the centuries and has always tried to facilitate life in the best possible way. Technology was always looked through from a positive point of view but nowadays we are forced to think otherwise. Things that we should use are being abused. Inappropriate way of life has lead to extensive environmental damage. This crisis produced hot issues such as global warming, ozone depletion, ocean pollution and the destruction of forests. The impairment that is being done is not only giving dreadful effects now, but it will increase in the future. These major problems imply that policies were not having their desired effect and therefore, a new set of policies which sustain human progress and the entire planet in a sustainable way, were needed. This new set of policies is known as the concept of sustainable development. In two main documents there lies the principal guideline of sustainable development. These known documents are, Our Common Future and Earth Summit’s Agenda 21.
Six major concepts try to steer our way of life so as to unite the present with the past and future and make us collaborate with one another.
Solidarity is in fact the key to start this new way of life. Past generations and generations to come need to respect each other and the planet, and care for the community of life. One should never benefit from something now, which will eventually have a downbeat effect on future generations. A practical example is that of genetic engineering. This technology opens up a new dimension for the world. It makes alternation of DNA possible. The immediate effects are very positive as they, for example, can make a plant breed more seeds and furthermore no pests will feed on them. Yet the downhill to all this will only be seen in the future. Once the structure of DNA is altered it would be impossible to change. Another negative impact that the future beings will face is the fracture of the feeding cycle. Therefore, it is essential for all to protect one another, as all generations are interrelated, which means that whatever happens today speaks about the relationship of the present with past and future generations.
The Essay on Why should we care about future generations?
Humankind today has enormous power that it will affect the future generations, be it better off as well as worse off. There are three main documents which outline our responsibility towards future generations. These are Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, the Convention of Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity.Two factors bring about modern ethical awareness for ...
High quality of life is essential nowadays. Yet, to improve the quality of human life one must have education, health, decent standard of living, freedom from violence, political freedom, guaranteed human rights and access of resources. Development would only be real if everyone is entitled to the above.
Life does not consist only of us humans. Respecting other species is another important key to live sustainable. Therefore, one must always try to conserve the Earth’s vitality and diversity since extinction is one of our major problems when it comes to decreasing of biodiversity. This may have developed due to our carelessness in protecting the natural cycles. These cycles altogether are those which kept us alive in the past and still are. If cycles are not protected, every single one of them, then someday even the human race can face the crisis of extinction.
Apart from biodiversity, resources are also being abused of. There are two types of resources. These are renewable and non-renewable resources. Renewable resources, example fish, plants and soil can be recycled and renewed. In spite of this, over fishing due to greed may lead to the extinction of fish. Due to new fishing technology, a vast number of fish can be caught at once. This might not mean that that so much fish are needed. Therefore, the unwanted fish is then wasted, and indirectly leading them to extinction. When it comes to non-renewable resources like coal and oil, one must immediately realize that these can never be renewed. Therefore, since future generations are also entitled to non-renewable resources, we must minimize the depletion of non-renewable resources.
The Essay on Plants and Life on Earth
Plants are the only organisms that can convert light energy from the sun into food. And plants produce all of the food that animals, including people, eat. Even meat. The animals that give us meat, such as chickens and cows, eat grass, oats, corn, or some other plants. Plants make oxygen One of the materials that plants produce as they make food is oxygen gas. This oxygen gas, which is an ...
Keeping within the Earth’s carrying capacity is another important concept to live a sustainable life. An additional problem which we face nowadays is population growth which has expanded tremendously. Environmentalists in the mid-sixties came up with a metaphor of the ”spaceship”. The Earth was compared to a ”spaceship” because both are identically ‘closed systems’, even though the Earth is dependent upon the solar radiation. Both are also finite, which means that the carrying capacity is limited, and support life through balanced, interrelated, self-sustaining methods. If the critical system fail on Earth or on the ”spaceship”, the passengers will not survive.
To live a sustainable life one must be willing to also understand and adopt the previous principles. Society must promote values that support the new ethic and discourage those that are incompatible with a sustainable way of life. This is essential because the majority of times people act on what they believe, therefore changing personal attitudes and practices would help for all to live a sustainable life.
