What is Sustainable Development?

The definition of sustainable development is best put in these words: “Meeting the needs of today’s population without harming the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

An example of sustainable development is:

The people in the forestry industry cut down trees everyday to make various products such as wood and paper. To sustain the trees I feel that the forestry industry has to plant seeds or plant trees after they are done clear cutting a section of land, so that the trees that they cut down can grow back and therefore, be used again in the future.

Sustainable development to me is renewing the resources that we are using on an everyday basis, to help further our children in the future. This can be accomplished by using natural sources for energy instead of oil and diesel, finding different ways of transportation, and how to use electricity effectively.

In the world today, many industries rely solely on oil and diesel products. These two energy sources are a main cause of carbon emissions that lead to the green house gas effect.

I believe that if we implement more renewable energy sources that occur naturally we will have a more sustainable environment. These natural energy sources never run out, and help to decrease many of the emissions that are destroying our environment. With the many natural energy sources that we have such as the sun, wind, and water we could produce mass amounts of energy without contributing carbon emissions. The sun can be used to give energy to solar panels which in turn could be turned into electricity or it could also be used to heat up water. The wind is a natural source that is all over the world at any given time, the use of wind turbines can produce mass amounts of energy to help in powering entire cities, communities or towns. The use of water can be used by dams; large amounts of water are forced through turbines which are connected to generators that produce electricity.

Fossil fuels such as gas and diesel are not a very efficient way for sustainability in our world today; they may be a good source of energy in today’s world but are slowly destroying our ozone layer over time. These fossil fuels also take a long time to reform and once they are used up they cannot be replaced or replenished. The process of making these energy sources uses up a lot of energy itself and emits large amounts of green house gases that are depleting the ozone layer. A few examples, that we can exhibit in today’s society would be to use public transportation such as buses, trains, cycling, walking or even bio-fuels in our vehicles to help cut out the emissions going into the atmosphere. The demand for fossil fuels can also be reduced by programs such as: recycling glass bottles, plastic containers, paper and plastic bags. These processes have made a huge impact, not only on producing new materials but also in eliminating the capacity of garbage in our landfills. As I have been growing up and in the last few years, society has been making a huge transfer on improving such things to save our environment. Many grocery stores have stopped giving away plastic bags and now make you buy other bags that are reusable. New ideas like LED light bulbs, cuts the use of electricity substantially compared to a normal light bulb. If we don’t take care of the problem at hand now, it will only keep getting worse and make it harder for our children in the future to resolve the issues that our society has made. The question now is what will you do today to help change the world for the future?