Sustainability Stewardship of Earth, sustainability and strong science are the main tasks of the modern society. Sustainability is becoming an increased concern for the United States in particular and the modern world in general. What does sustainable future mean? According to Sustainable Measures Website, sustainability is related to the quality of life in a community — whether the economic, social and environmental systems that make up the community are providing a healthy, productive, meaningful life for all community residents, present and future. The aim of sustainability is to reach the balance in the interactions of three systems for sustainability: economic, social and environmental system. It is very difficult to reach the agreement concerning sustainable development of society because people have to make many hard choices. Sustainability is a very long-term community goal (Cox 3).
In brief, it means the kind of development that satisfies the demands and needs of population today without compromising the ability of people in the future to meet their needs (Cox 1).
The author of the article What is Sustainable Development? explores various components of sustainable development: Ecological limits and equitable standards. The goal of this component is to try to use everything that is ecologically possible to enhance our economic situation. It also means consuming and throwing away less, purchasing long-lasting products as well as products with packaging that are as free of toxics as possible; Conservation of natural resources. Conservation means protection of all natural systems; Species diversification. The aim of species diversification is to conserve and protect plant and animal species.
Resource retention. The aim of retention is to reduce the usage of non-renewable resources to a minimum; Community control means to prevent the over-exploitation of ecosystems; Carrying capacity and sustainable yield should help to identify the potential productivity of ecosystems; Finally, controlling population growth. Some scientists claim that controlling population growth is one of the underlying themes of sustainability. Is it true? Lets dwell on problems of population growth within the limits of environmental science and sustainable future. The term population growth basically explains how the population changes during the certain period of time. The decrease or increase in population growth is controlled by the death and birth rates.
The birth rate is a constant of proportionality. It depends on such factors as the proportion of population able to reproduce, the proportion of population that will die during the next period of time, overcrowding and scarcity of resources, to mention a few. We need to remember that population grows within a certain limit. It is necessary to understand that population of the Earth have a so-called limiting population that is determined by the carrying capacity of their environment. The ecologists often speak about the carrying capacity within the terms of sustainable development. They define carrying capacity as the maximal population size of certain species a certain ecosystem and area can support without reducing its ability to support the same species in the future.
Really, the size of population depends on natural resources such as land and/or food availability. Sometimes human population is too large to be supported by the available resources. People live within the worlds ecosystems. The human population increases in geometrical progress. Yet, they also can reach limits to growth and to threat the sustainable development of society.
Bibliography:
Cox, Linda J. What is Sustainable Development? Retrieved June 19, 2006. http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/RM-14. pdf Sustainable Measures Website.
Retrieved June 19, 2006. http://www.sustainablemeasures.com/Sustainability/ index.html.