Principles of Sustainability

CL964: Principles of sustainability
“Because sustainable development is an oxymoron (see Redclift), because a holistic approach to sustainability is impossible (see Sterling) and because politics cannot solve practical and physical problems (see Held), there is no possible policy response that alone can deliver sustainability.”

Sandeep Sanal Kumar
(201163688)

14/05/2011

Table of Contents

Introduction:
Sustainability development has viewed in different perspective from different people from different parts of the globe. Sustainability importance has been recognised in the past decades from the alarming issues and threats to our planet which has proved by the scientists across the globe. Major threats like global warming, water issues are caused by the problems like exploitation of nature, increase in population, changes in lifestyle of the people which eventually leads to the new and improved needs of human which contributes in building technologies using the various sources from the planet may also be the major cause of these threats. In other words globalization is being need for the development growth in economic, social and political perspective may also be cause for these threats. However, growth is vital consciousness in humans which has led transformed human lifestyles over the years. Now it is time to transform lifestyles of humans into sustainably, although the change, growth are the two important aspects in humans. From the concept of “sustainable growth is impossible” (Herman E. Daly and Kenneth N.Townsend, 1993) to majority of the sustainable development has achieved (Redclift M, 2005) arguments and comments notably sustainable development is necessary for the future growth but the question, will be applying principles of sustainability will limit the growth, can sustainability development can solve all the practical issues and threats. This essay will be focussed on how the governments, politics are connected and how they are going to approach the sustainability development, is there any possible policy, principles or procedures can be amended that can deliver sustainability and can it solve all the practical issues .
Sustainability development:
Sustainability development has become necessary for the better well-being for the next generations; global warming, water issues, ozone depletion are some of the dreadful threats to the earth. But it is important to look into the reasons what had caused these issues apart from the scientific reason, for example one of the major reason considered for global warming is greenhouse gas emissions but the reason for the sudden increase in the greenhouse gas emission is important. Human being are existing in the earth for more than 100,00 years but the issues and threats to the planet have been significant from 19th century does that mean that the ancestors or the previous generation have not use the resources properly for the future generations. From the starting of the 19th century there have been strong driving force that changed the humanity to the different direction of living, the main cause or driving force has to be looked in all the possible way of the nature and also should consider the civilizational crisis in different approaches. According to Hull Z (2007) the ‘end of the world’ being a product of globalization has created a new quality among humanity with latest technologies; people are closely connected than ever before. With the globalisation the major threats are technology trap, global welfare, turbo capitalism; technology trap which the humanity has already fallen, the technology is being developed as the needs and changes of the humanity but now the technology drives the humanity in its direction creating sudden change in the human activities from the past centuries. Global welfare creating vast social difference between rich and the poor, easy cheap access to destructive weapons which ultimately might create rebels and wars. Turbo capitalism, where the society serves the economy and not vice-versa, also breaking down society into more losers and very few winners and also other threats to the life with over exploitation of physical, living resources from the biosphere, increasing level of population, pollution, industrial outputs etc. Globalisation has resulted in a way to uncertainty where the humanity might not be returned. It can be taken into consideration that the turning point of humanity from the 19th century could be globalisation as one of the main cause. It is agreed that that humans are the part of the nature and it cannot go beyond, before looking to the globalisation there are other views on sustainability also, some consider that there is need to preserve the resources for the next generation as it blocks the aspiration of the present needs will stop the living enjoyment of this present generation. However, sustainability is important for the survival for present generation and being centre of the sustainable development.
Globalisation and sustainable development:
Globalisation is the exchange and integration of ideas, culture, technology, markets, politics for the progression and well-being expecting growth across countries globally. Starting of the globalisation can be considered from the conquering to lands and countries for the wealth and prosperity from the kingdom process continuing to the Northern countries colonising southern countries again later which is clear from world war one and two , from these it is evident that humanity is being changed according to time and comfortable needs however each human psychology has different perspective on living by the time , humanity created an important survival tool called wealth which humanity became prey for it , even now. These discussions leads nowhere because humans are living in this concept. And Globalisation reaching its maximum level and its impact is being across the globe. For example, India is well known traditional country known for its varied heritage and history. In past two decades there is tremendous change in the country which the country has never seen before. The impact is over social, culture, economy. Few of the social and cultural changes are access to the television grew from 10% of the urban population (1991) to 94 % in (2006), old restaurants are being placed with restaurant chains like McDonalds, KFC etc., unmarried boys and girls are living together before the marriage, certain words which like “dude” are being common nowadays which have been never so common before two decades these are clear indication that globalisation has impact on the normal individual in developing countries too. Globalisation has different phase ,it is not only the side of economy is being barrier to the sustainability but also in other forms like culture and social impact.
Culture , technology and Globalisation:
The relation between culture and technology is significant as most of the technologies are the result of the changing needs and constraints. Technology development has also huge impact on the societies because the technology has been developed according to the needs but due to the impact of globalisation and over population which leads to the consumption of unlimited amount of the technologies usage. Now it is time to research the impact of the technology before the release of the particular technology even though the technologies are released without assessing the negative consequences (Hull Z(b), 2007).Although technology has linked the globe where now people can know the conditions like weather, market, economy, political situation, etc. in seconds .As the technology being increasing with steady pace the possibility of change in culture is also increasing, the impact on the cultural changes is tremendous which again creates the problem for sustainable development. Globalisation has huge positive and negative impact , positive impact is that when the technologies are introduced it is spread through globally and when the negative consequences are arises through particular technologies though it create awareness, the technology consequences being pushed from northern countries to the southern countries ; for example old styled televisions are banned in Europe due to its impact on environment after use and these televisions are pushed to from European markets to the southern countries for the cheaper price. Though the environment issues are globally affected and due to the globalisation the markets are easily shift able from one place to another where the effect of globalisation is purely negative in most cases. In 21st century modern technologies are being created every day without knowing the negative impact even though technologies are created on the changing needs and changes for the society. However simple technologies can alter the change in the culture – and the society/environment that is the part of culture in possible undesirable ways, as future is uncertain so as the sustainability with linking the culture and technology is also uncertain because of the perpetual relationship between technology and culture.
Sustainability development and Economics:
Economics, always connected to create new policies have a vital role in analysing social objectives and their ethical values. As economy of each individual nation is important, as sign of globalisation, the when the economy of the powerful developed countries get collapsed it affects the other developing countries in the same way. The link between the economics and sustainable development is highly crucial because the policy decision makers decides the policies with available resources for the growth but the point is when there is disproportion between the available resources and policies for growth which may create scarcity for the same resource where it leads to limiting the sustainable developments. Economic expansion will soon come to end because of the environmental limits (Meadows et al.,1972). Even, discussing the link between economics and sustainable development the role of globalisation plays a role. As policy are created in the concept of green strategy on the basis of sustainable development again these policy strategy are stronger in Northern countries than the southern countries. For example, Recycling campaign are almost everywhere around the globe now days and European countries are taking actions to reduce the landfills and other strategy but in fact as result it is found that wastes are being exported to countries like china, India for the process in order to reduce the cost, does that mean green strategy and well-being are only for northern countries. It is the major force in the Northern countries plays a vital role in developing strategy for the economic growth.
Again, Globalisation encouraged by globalists claim that the growth aimed globally, but it is to be noted that through globalisation ‘sustainable development ‘ has become bureaucratic approach to improve the major forces across the globe. However economic-environment has to be present for growth and to deal with poverty and inequalities (Common M, 1995). The question here will be will it be sustainable development. The growth has taken place enormously from past few decades to the present and it is accepted. And also the gap between the rich and the poor was also increased with the pace of growth. Economy and growth are vital, and the policies are to be designed in such a way that the growth should be continuous in the other side there should be restriction on the resources taken for the growth, it would have been possible of the life style changes and if the population level which is limited according to the resource available now the situation which is inversely proportionate. The situation is clear that the solution for the progression along with the economic and sustainable development is absolutely unclear or vague. The policies designed for the progression for the growth and progress can be changed by the nature any time as the future is uncertain. Economic has discipline with the tradition which uses mathematics to make use of these senses which regard sustainable development which primarily lead to the market failures (Vangelis Vitalis, 2003).The concept here will be trade-off between the three pillars of the sustainable development for with the proper use economic tools, then again question rises with what has to be sustained, what has to be protected and in what measurement. Natural resources, man-made resources , renewable resources are the common list provided by many economists even claim that sustainable development is considered as “strong” when it is hard to substitute human-capital for nature (Redclift M, 2005). The exact answers for all the questions are really vague and there is no clear evidence that this point or clear data shows that to be followed for the clear picture future growth and sustainable development.
Sustainable development with perspective of population:
Over population, again is linked to the issues of sustainable development. According to Pimentel (1996) the optimum population in the earth for ‘comfortable standard of living’ is two billion where it crossed six billion now. Some argues that the over population is creates economic scale and cheaper products and in China under the communist government promoted population because they believe that there is power and strength. While the Northern countries started to blame the southern countries that the environmental impact is due to the overpopulation from the southern countries and southern countries blaming the northern countries for over consumption. However, over population is serious problem relating sustainable development or for the growth. The basic problem becomes so simple to identify that due to the infinite population there will be scares for the finite resources which end-up in leading to various other problems. Unethical concept of ‘lifeboat ethic’ of Hardin (1974) says the poor and the weak should die for the sake of the fittest which is absolute absurdity. Humanity as whole is privilege for each humans on this earth. The result of the over population will be adverse when there is need of sustainable development. Population explosion result in ‘people- versus -resources’, again the topic is the difference in the income levels of the people and the gap between the rich and poor level. It is noted that the income of first three richest people in the world will be equal to the 600 million people’s income from the bottom poor people (Rajeswar J, 2000). This can be considered as the effects of the ethic, values, globalisation, and free-trade without any fundamental planning.
The other side of the population impact, it is noted that 64 out of 105 developing countries population has grown faster than food supply and it also claimed that by 2025, with world population projecting 8 million and 48 countries containing 3 billion people (The green market,2010). In nutshell the increasing population, people use more resources and economic development and sustainable development cannot be reconciled fully with increase in population. Again in this context creating sustainable policies for future seems unrealistic as the future cannot be predicted even though some predict that the over population will be saturate at some point of level and that the visibility of that level is nowhere visible along these years apart from rapid increase.
Justice and Sustainable development:
‘Environmental justice’ is another two words combining to produce different perspective from different people. Although human rights are should have been common across the globe towards earth but due to the policies and territory rules the basic rights towards the environment have deprived in the name of development. With the new polies and developments the environmental justice meaning changed a lot and according .Environmental justice can be defined as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, colour, sex, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." (Miller J and Tylor G, 2003). The justice is equal to everyone though it can be blamed in this context one of the main reason of which created inequalities can be put as globalisation, though it is not to blame fully on globalisation .And the problem is how the justice is affecting the sustainable development in the theories of sustainability, as the sustainability may be related to justice in three different ways and it can be considered as environment something that has to be distributed, justice as functionality of sustainability and ‘justice as the environment’ (Dobson A, 1998). When considering justice it is important it is equally distributed and also the development is the right for every individuals but the developments have not took in every individuals across the globe. Policies for development play a important role in this section on developments however it can be mentioned as only developments in this context may not be sustainable development. According to Norton’s point “Environmentalists believe that policies serving the interests of the human species as whole, and in the long run, will serve also the interests of the nature”. As a point, it is important to create policies in consideration of justice in equal and with taking account of protecting the nature; however the policies created will not be empirical to judge the feasibility of sustainable development.
Conclusion:
‘Sustainable development ‘– from ‘oxymoron’ comment to the ‘future depends on it’ like various perspective from different people. And it is wide subject where the link between each system is enormous, right from the basic needs of humanity to the highly influenced technology, economics, population, globalisation, poverty etc. And it is also found that there is link between all these systems. Therefore in this essay the link between certain important connections which has impact on sustainable development has been discussed. Although it is mentioned in arguments between northern countries and southern countries to mention again it is also claimed by the developing countries that sustainable development is convenient argument by developed world to show their global economic dominance. The policies a taken by the government, local authorities with setting up targets to reduce the carbon emission and other actions for in the name of sustainable will help the environment. But the sustainable development which is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. (Brundtland Commission, 1987).
In this context, sustainable development is important to preserve the nature but the question of passing to the next generation for their future to meet their needs is arguable statement. The entire system has collapsed by the humanity somewhere along the years in the name of the development. These errors actually can be cannot be spotted because there is no actual system pr person to blame and the conquering nature in humans might be inner characteristics of humans as it is humanity itself as evolved from animals which is irrefutable .However humanity have evolved for centuries creating cultures, languages, subjects but again the collapse or system failure happened when the dominance power distributed between the western or northern countries and southern countries from where the most of the dominance shifted to northern countries
However humanity is the place where they have to take measures and actions in order to growth. There have been issues from centuries killing humans and nowhere in the history indicate or explains t that humanity has been completely destroyed by particular issues ever since humans evolved in this planet. In the name of sustainable development, developments which is sustainably approaching towards preservation nature and its resources is important as the natural resources play a significant role for the survival of humans and other living organisms as because there is no living organisms exploit nature as humans does it and these approaches also varies from one place to another across the globe, as whole there is no holistic way of approaching sustainable development nor any particular polices can solve the practical problems because the change and needs of humanity change according to time which is unpredictable.

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