5.4: Sustainability
- Page ID
- 108118
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- Define sustainability and the sustainability paradigm
- Describe the historical development of the sustainability paradigm
- Describe how ethics and moral extensionism connect to sustainability
- Understand that true sustainability promotes environmental equity and justice, thus eliminating environmental racism
- Describe the evolution of ethics leading to the modern environmental ethic
- Understand how environmental policy has changed based on movements and need
- Describe how sustainable lifestyle choices influence sustainability
In this 7-minute animated video, a simple definition of sustainability is presented based on science and natural cycles, in addition to the four root causes of un-sustainability (the 4 things we need to stop doing in order to become sustainable).
Question after watching: Which of these concepts are review from the previous 5 Units? Which are new?
- 5.4.1: Introduction to Sustainability
- This section introduces the concept of sustainability, which refers to the sociopolitical, scientific, and cultural challenges of living within the means of the Earth without significantly impairing its function. Sustainability did not suddenly come into being at a single moment in time. Most environmental historians have discerned at least three distinct periods during which new concepts and ideas came or were brought into being in order to understand and manage human impacts on the environment
- 5.4.2: Sustainability Ethics and Environmental Justice
- To be sustainable is to be attentive to what is to come. So sustainability requires imagination. Sustainability teaches that the environment is not a sideshow or a scenic backdrop to our lives. Our relation to our natural resources is the key to our survival. It is the grounds of possibility for everything else. Environmental justice is achieved when everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and equal access to the decision-making process.
- 5.4.3: Environmental Policy, Monitoring, and Impact Assessments
- Environmental policies are typically driven by problems of the day, real and perceived, that require systemic solutions. Many of these complex problems have multiple causes and impacts, affect some more than others, are economically demanding, are often not as apparent to casual observers, nor are benefits perceived to equal to costs. Environmental monitoring programs depend on the careful choice of a limited number of representative indicators and on the collection of reliable data.
- 5.4.4: Sustainability and the Future
- All levels of society have a responsibility to protect the quality of our common environment. These obligations are a central aspect of the social contract by which enlightened communities function. All individual citizens have an obligation to live their lives in an environmentally responsible manner.