Sustainability is a current and ever growing theme as we begin to exhaust the planet's resources with our luxurious lifestyles and mass industrialisation. It is a very real threat that the world only has a certain amount of oil and within 50 years we are estimated to run out which means that we must find more sustainable methods of power before then. Furthermore you may have learned about global warming and how we are damaging the planet; though we may live comfortably some people are suffering now as the ozone layer protecting our planet fades, particularly over Chile in South America, and future generations will suffer also if we do not act now. Sustainability means something that can be sustained (can practically continue for the forseeable future) and our way of life is unfortunately not sustainable. Wind Turbines are just one way of creating sustainable electricity for there will always be wind as long as the planet exists and it is natural and not damaging, but despite all the advertisements you may see and focuses of large companies on 'going green' and protecting the environment, sustainability is more than just environmental, in fact it can be seperated into four main categories.
Social:
If you fall ill, the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK will treat you free of charge (it is paid for by taxes that everyone has to pay over a certain age). This is an example of social sustainability, health services, education, anything that is in the interest of the general public and that needs to be preserved falls under the title of Social Sustainability. This is the least well known of the four and most misunderstood, perhaps because many people take such matters for granted, but ensuring that there is enough housing space for people to live and suitable facilities such as toilets in a restaurant is all a part of Social Sustainability. We may not realise it but this is an incredibly important aspect of everyday life and every local council will have to adress these concerns.
Political:
Also often forgotten Political Sustainability covers any sustainable schemes that would need governmental approval and also the governing of a country itself. For example, a corrupt regime such as Colonel Gadaffi's military regime in Libya was not sustainable because people will not happily live opressed and without proper care. Human Rights cannot be ignored and sure enough a civil war broke out and the Colonel was eventually overthrown with help from the western world. Furthermore, governments have to make decisions that are sustainable when managing a nation so for example when President Obama proposed 'Obama Care' in a similar fashion to the NHS but for the US that was a sustainable political move.
Economic:
Economic sustainability covers everything related to money so for example spending all of your month's pay in a few days is not sustainable because you will not have any money to survive the rest of the month. On the grander scale economic sustainability is an issue when managing the economy of a nation or business and ensuring that money is spent sensibly and distributed fairly. it is important to remember that these different branches of sustainability all interlink and will often be displayed in a ven diagram because of course many economic and social issues will also be political and in turn over environmental issues.
Environmental:
Finally the most common image of Sustainability is the environemtal aspect and it is entirely true that we are using up the world's resources at an unsustainable rate. Whole bodies of the ocean are now void of particular schools of fish due to mass fishing, huge areas of rainforest lay bare which is most bizarre because we need the Co2 trees produce to breathe and perhaps most importantly global warming is a real threat and will melt the polar ice caps and cause freak weather patterns and natural disasters. This is not meant to scare you and it is by no means too late but we must act sooner rather than later, we really must act now to preserve the future of planet Earth.
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