Tag: global warming

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Climate Change

The Importance Of Ecology – Sustainable And Sustainable Development

The our species as well as the rest of this planet's life forms have been exposed to many dangers thanks to our lack of preservation of the environment. What has this brought us as a society? For one it has led to a rediscovery of what it means for many to live in harmony with the environment. Not like many think—hippies communing with nature—rather self-aware as we become aware of the damage we have caused to nature and the need to replace our old understanding. In this sense, society, in the present century and since the middle of the previous century, has turned its sight to ecology as a science that allows it to preserve nature under a scientific vision.

Governments throughout the world have rethought development styles with a more environmentalistic orientation (at least in theory), which has led them to understand our nature and their behavior through a science as interesting as the ecology.

Why?

Because it encompasses the study of all the interactions of living and non-living beings with the environment in which they encounter and the way they achieve their balance, in order to understand what phenomena cause an imbalance in the same. Through the increasing exploitation of natural resources and the degradation of ecosystems, we raise questions about the permanence and perpetuity of the resources needed to sustain the growth of human populations. These changes include the alteration of biotic communities, the extinction of species, changes in the resilience and resilience of ecosystems to disturbances, ecological processes that depart from their historical variability, changes in the nature of ecosystems and decoupling of important biogeochemical cycles (many of these changes due to the global warming phenomenon). Only by studying how the elements of nature interact with each other whether an understanding of the current environmental problem has been achieved, in such a way that the elements that are affecting the delicate balance of the environment have been found and understood.

These alarming processes of progressive destruction of our natural environments around the world have prompted recognition of the possible role of ecology in decision-making to reconcile the management of natural resources by the processes of growth and development of each nation.

While the challenges they face have a lot to do with the conservation and management of natural environments in countries with a very complex socio-economic problem, one which warrants short-term solutions in terms of survival and development, it is necessary to take into account that it is impossible to preserve and manage something that is not fully known.

That is why it is important to achieve a better understanding of the physical and biological processes that generate the unbridled growth and development of the planet's human populations should be one of the fundamental priorities of the ecological work of not just the developed countries, rather all nations in the present century.

Understanding the differences between sustainable and sustainable development is vital to understanding how environmental conception has gained ground since the end of the last century. The term sustainable refers to what is maintained over time, and sustainable to the elements necessary to live, in particular it refers more clearly to the type of content that development should have.

The first conception to consider itself at the global level was sustainable development.

When looking for a definition to describe—sustainable development—it is almost exclusively reduced to economic development, the growth of which is measured as an increase in gross domestic product or per capita income). It implies in its description that economic growth is constant over time (sustained economic growth) and, on the other hand, refers to environmental conservation as a localized policy that does not question or imply a rethinking of patterns consumption, production of goods, waste generation or impact on nature, but a simple isolation of certain geographical areas, no matter what happens in their environment (social problems, exclusion, etc.). Another characteristic of this current train of thought is that it does not give any relevance to social participation as a means of ensuring the sustainability of sustainable development, but, when it is raised, it is expressed as a vertical process, oriented up and down, where decision-making is unique to the spheres of power, preventing the population from participating in them, turning human ensembles into mere recipients of benefits passively, not allowing the empathy of the population to connect with the development processes.

This has been one of the major

Sustainable development, on the other hand, is interested not only in economic growth, but also how it is produced and how the created wealth is distributed. It emerges from the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report in 1996 (PDF), where it is established as a key element for economic growth and development that there is equity in the distribution of wealth, because the greater the the equality with which they are distributed and economic opportunities, the more likely they will result in an improvement of human well-being. This conception can be summed up as the need for inclusive and equitable economic growth, and to abandon that growth that is exclusionary and polarized, since the latter destroy the ecosystems in which they operate.

Here is an excerpt:

To support economic growth as a means to enrich people's lives, the Report demonstrates why:

  • Over the past 15 years the world has seen spectacular economic advance for some countries – and unprecedented decline for others;
  • Widening disparities in economic performance are creating two worlds – ever more polarized;
  • Everywhere, the structure and quality of growth demand more attention – to contribute to human development, poverty reduction and long-term sustainability;
  • Progress in human development has mostly continued – but too unevenly;
  • New approaches are needed to expand and improve employment opportunities, so that people can participate in growth – and benefit from it; and
  • Economic growth is not sustainable without human development.

The sustainable development to which is referred to emphasizes environmental sustainability as a fundamental element, which refers to the need for the impact of the development process not to irreversibly destroy ecosystems, since the frontier of possibility of environmental use (defined as the production possibilities that are compatible with environmental restrictions) is currently very narrow. On the other hand, social sustainability related to strengthening a style of development that does not perpetuate or deepen poverty or social exclusion, but has as one of its central objectives the eradication of it and social justice and, on the other hand horizontal social participation in decision-making. Finally, economic sustainability, which is understood as interrelated economic growth with the two elements above.

In this way, the achievement of sustainable human development will be the result of a new type of economic growth that promotes social equity, a substantial improvement in the quality of life of the vast majority of a society and establishes a non-destructive relationship with nature.

Categories
Climate Change Politics

What Is The Importance Of Environmental Conservation?

The conception of a green world has gained increasingly important in the space of our society. Fridays For Future, Extinction Rebellion, and other grassroots style movements have taken a prominent position in media, opening up a platform for debate about the current state of our planet.

The need for environmental preservation arises from the realization of the serious damage we have caused to our ecosystems through the unbridled negative transformation that they have undergone because of our thwarted attempts at development. We have not understood the need for economic growth that goes hand in hand with the preservation of our environment, because the predation of nature for abundant economic benefits has been easier than replenishing the damage which originates from taking their resources indiscriminately.

Environmental conservation arises from the need to preserve all natural resources in a manner parallels with development, in such a way that it allows us to equate on a balance the growth and development of our country with the conservation of our resources seeking to support the economic growth we want for our nation.

The rapid growth of our population resulting from the increased disposition of economic resources in the country, has led to an unequal distribution in our geographical spaces that have serious consequences to our natural resources.

With concern we can see how our ecosystems are negatively altered, even allowing the disappearance of large tracts of plant resources by the indiscriminate settlement and disruption in these areas.

The government has taken this initiative, justifying it on many occasions (Keystone Pipeline), yet bringing with it serious consequences for our planet. Such indiscriminate conduct throughout the world has led to; deforestation and the inadequate use of soils, encouraging unsafe construction in this newly won area (developing regions are most often afflicted where environmental conservation and poverty are at odds), sometimes suffering the onslaught of the elements (such as rain, typhoon, and earth quakes), which result in the loss of life and property, due to the inadequate use of spaces unfit for the location of many homes. By abandoning the invaded areas all that is left if a trail of destruction of our ecosystem and suffering. What's more without any conscious effort to regulate and restore these areas with policies that allow their recovery and educate the population it is an endless cycle.

Every day we watch as pollution ravages our once green environment, the product of the disinterest of environmental protection agencies, tasked with preserving them for the enjoyment of the entire population. The expansion of spaces for manufacturing enterprises, the construction of residential complexes in extensions of green land, the claim placed on these spaces have led to an increase in pollution of nature, without modern policies to address this serious problem we have resigned ourselves to a state in which we remain inactive. We can see how many of the manufacturing companies affect our atmosphere by emanating a large amount of gases and other pollutants, producing air pollution and contributing to the phenomenon of global warming. Excessive population growth, on the other hand, has led to an increase in pollution in the form of solid waste, which, in addition to the absence of recycling policies in many areas of the developing world, has increased the pollution of our soils exponentially. The poor arrangement of excreta and wastewater pollutes our natural channels, without appreciating the need for processing policies for the decontamination of our planet's waters.

Thus arises the importance of becoming aware of our environment amid the chaos of modern economic and population growth. We must establish global policies that allow us to concatenate the growth and development with the preservation of our planet's natural environments, making our development sustainable and feasible for our ever growing world population.

If we ask ourselves what to do to preserve our environment, we must start from the idea of understanding why we should preserve it. Fridays for Future? But what future? First, we must guarantee the life of our ecosystems in order to improve the quality of life of our population, offering it an environment that ensures an ever purer air quality and natural resources that provide the elements necessary for its survival on a constant basis, without the persistent fear that they may become extinct as a result of their misuse and preservation. This is ensured by the establishment of stronger policies to regulate the provision of pollutants in our environment and the creation of measures for the processing of pollutants in wastewater to ensure the decontamination of our rivers and seas (plastic particles do not originate from our oceans). In this way, we will be ensuring that present and future generations can enjoy all the resources that our nature is able to provide.

On the other hand, equally immediate and parallel, it is necessary to educate our society on the importance of creating and conserving a pollution-free environment. There is a need for greater scope on the part of the State (grassroots initiatives and NGO programs are good but law makers need to get involved at a more fundamental level) for educational policies to further raise awareness, day by day, of the importance of preserving our natural resources, from the earliest stages of our children's education to creating an environmentalist awareness in our adults. The ultimate idea will be that this awareness of preservation will be internalized in a natural way and become a lifestyle, which originates in the homes, from the beginning of the upbringing of our children, the idea of preserving our nature so that we can perpetually enjoy all the resources that she is able to provide us.