 |
| You
are here: Home
> Explore
Sustainability
> Step
One - Understand |
|
The Challenge
An old Kenyan proverb states that we should “Treat the Earth well. It is not inherited from your parents, it is borrowed from your children”.
A brief look at the global socio-environmental condition suggests that we have not taken heed of this ancient advice. Rather, we have shown a tendency to live for the day.
A brief look at the global socio-environmental condition suggests that we have not taken heed of this ancient advice. Rather, we have shown a tendency to live for the day. Desertification, deforestation, climate change, local air pollution, and declining biodiversity are just some of the pressing issues that scientists have identified as being detrimental to the environment within which we live. Delicate and interwoven biological and chemical systems that are the basis of life on earth are being put in jeopardy.
And it’s not just our environment that is in trouble. Billions of people around the world are still living without access to clean water or basic services. There is a need to create sustainable livelihoods that will support a growing population of up to 9 billion people by 2050, the majority of whom will live in today’s developing countries. Even in the developed world we are not free from social troubles; demographic shifts will over time drain wealth from our economy creating a fiscal challenge like no other.
These trends are not sudden, or unpredicted: over the past 40 years numerous studies have eloquently reminded us of these issues. Why are we so concerned now, all of a sudden? What has changed? Perhaps it is the fact that by virtue of the ‘global goldfish bowl’ the prosperous developed world is able to observe the effects of this degradation first hand: the effects of war, environmental destruction, famine and disease are now discernible in great detail and in real-time. The issues have come to our doorstep and we are finding ourselves asking firstly who is responsible, and secondly what can be done to ameliorate or reverse the consequences.
Many governments, companies and individuals alike have been forced
to take a step back, in doing this they seem to be coming to the
fundamental realisation that society only thrives because of the
environment within which it is seated. In turn, the economy, powered
by the environment (in the form of resource consumption) thrives
on a healthy society. This realisation forms the basis of the challenge
that is sustainable development. Development should and must continue,
but not by eroding societal capital, or by degenerating our environment
- it is our innate responsibility to ensure that subsequent generations
inherit sturdy foundations.
Using the words of Niall Fitzgerald, former CEO of Unilever, “Sustainability is here to stay or we may not be”.
back to top
|
|
|
|
|
HOME
