Impact of Resource Consumption
•Over 25% of possible terrestrial and aquatic solar energy captured in photosynthesis by primary producers (plants and cyanobacteria) is now appropriated by humans.
•Doublings of the human impact on the world’s natural resources-through combination of population increase and consumption-fueled economic growth-would result in 100% of the net primary production being utilized by humans. This imbalance will leave ecosystems with nothing.
•Such ecological imbalance will have catastrophic implications for humans, because of our well-established reliance on ecosystems for economic prosperity and health.
•Doublings of the human impact on the world’s natural resources-through combination of population increase and consumption-fueled economic growth-would result in 100% of the net primary production being utilized by humans. This imbalance will leave ecosystems with nothing.
•Such ecological imbalance will have catastrophic implications for humans, because of our well-established reliance on ecosystems for economic prosperity and health.
Tragedy of Commons
•Individuals or organizations consume shared resources (e.g., freshwater, fish etc) and then return their wastes back into the shared resource (air, land).
•Individual or organization receives benefit of the shared resource but the cost is distributed across anyone who also uses that resources.
•Tragedy arises when individual or organization fails to realize that everyone else is acting in the same way. •Consumptive behavior of few has led to a significant impact on the many – and the destruction of the integrity of the shared resource.
•Individual or organization receives benefit of the shared resource but the cost is distributed across anyone who also uses that resources.
•Tragedy arises when individual or organization fails to realize that everyone else is acting in the same way. •Consumptive behavior of few has led to a significant impact on the many – and the destruction of the integrity of the shared resource.
United Nations (UN) Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm, 1972)
Added environment to the list of global problems. Evident in the following principle of conference’s Stockholm Declaration.
Principle 1: Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality, and adequate conditions of life, environment of quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being, and he bears a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations.
Principle 2: The natural resources of the earth including air, water, land, flora, and fauna and especially representative samples of natural ecosystems must be safeguarded for the benefit of present and future generations through careful planning and management, as appropriate.
Principle 1: Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality, and adequate conditions of life, environment of quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being, and he bears a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations.
Principle 2: The natural resources of the earth including air, water, land, flora, and fauna and especially representative samples of natural ecosystems must be safeguarded for the benefit of present and future generations through careful planning and management, as appropriate.
UN World Commission on Environment and Development
Sustainable Development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
-Brundtland Commission Report, 1987. (Our Common Future)
-Brundtland Commission Report, 1987. (Our Common Future)
Sustainability - Another definition
Sustainability has often been represented by the symbol on the left. Each ring represents one of the three systems that support our civilization: the economy, the environment, and our society. Each of these rings overlaps, i.e. influences, or is affected by, the other two. For a community to be sustainable, each of these systems must be healthy and in balance with the others.
-Office of Planning and sustainable communities, NJDEP –www.nj.gov/dep
-Office of Planning and sustainable communities, NJDEP –www.nj.gov/dep
2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, South Africa
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 www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ |
Sustainability and Health
Health is both a resource for, as well as an outcome of, sustainable development. The goals of sustainable development cannot be achieved when there is a high prevalence of debilitating illness and poverty, and the health of a population cannot be maintained without a responsive health system and a healthy environment. Environmental degradation, mismanagement of natural resources, and unhealthy consumption patterns and lifestyles impact health. Ill-health in turn, hampers poverty alleviation and economic development (WHO, 2005). (Source: www.who.org).
Some facts:
Some facts:
- Poor environmental quality contributes to 25% of all preventable illnesses in the world.
- 900 million people lacks access to an improved water supply.
- 2.5 billion people lacks access to any type of sanitation equipment.
- More than 90% of the wastewater in developing countries and 33% in developed countries is not treated (WHO, 1999).
- Disease causing vectors are transmitted through contact with water, air, and solid waste.
- Health is inextricably linked to sustainable development.
- For people living in poverty, illness and disability translate directly into loss of income. This can be devastating for individuals and their families who are dependent on their health for household income.
- For people living in poverty, illness and disability translate directly into loss of income. This can be devastating for individuals and their families who are dependent on their health for household income (WHO, 2004).