Environmental Crisis: Sustainable Solutions for the Future
Environmental Crisis: A Critical Stress on Our Planet
The environmental crisis refers to a series of problems that have led to critical stress due to technological and industrial progress developed outside of natural systems.
Alternatives to Environmental Problems
Uncontrolled Exploitation
Uncontrolled exploitation is a direct result of industrialization and overexploitation of resources, which provokes the current environmental crisis. It is based on the generation of wealth and consumer goods that promote economic growth or economic development without taking into account the deterioration of the natural environment. In essence, it is based on the consideration of the economic system outside of the ecological system. Its features are:
- Inflows of matter and unlimited fossil fuels.
- Belief that technological advances will solve future problems.
- Ignoring hidden costs or inputs such as environmental impacts, generating large amounts of waste, high energy consumption, pollution, etc.
- Invariably leading to depletion of the natural system that maintains it and economic collapse.
Hidden input costs: Environmental costs are not usually accounted for in the price of products and have adverse effects on the environment, health, or society.
Extreme Conservation
Extreme conservation emerged in the 1972 Stockholm Conference as a result of raising awareness of the serious environmental problems facing the planet. It proposes that industrialized countries are aware that these problems threaten health and the falsity of two ideas that have guided development:
- The omnipotence of man.
- Nature is indestructible.
Developing countries that want to reach the living standards of developed nations do not accept that conservatism is the solution, since it implies that they are in a position clearly at a disadvantage both socially and economically.
Sustainable Development
Sustainable Development was coined in the Brundtland Report, 1987. It is defined as economic activity that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It defends:
- Economic development of all nations (solidarity between generations).
- Care of the environment for future generations (intergenerational solidarity).
Sustainability must be achieved at three levels:
- Economic
- Ecological
- Social
The idea was embodied in the 1992 Rio Summit on the Earth Charter and the document called Agenda 21, which sets out the overall management strategies necessary to achieve the objectives in the present century.
The principles of sustainable development are:
- Principle of sustainable harvesting (potentially renewable resources): The rate of consumption of that resource must be equal to or less than the renewal rate.
- Principle of sustainable discharge (non-renewable resources): Their consumption rate must be equal to or less than the rate of creation of new renewable resources to replace them when they run out.
- Principle of sustainable emission: The emission rate of pollutants must be below the assimilative capacity of natural or recycled conducted themselves from the environment.
- Principle of sustainable selection of technologies: Encouraging the use of new cleaner and more efficient technologies.
- Zero irreversibility principle: Proceed with caution so as to reduce to zero the environmental impacts that may cause irreversible damage to the environment.
- Principle of equitable development (social sustainability): Quality of life equal to all the inhabitants of the planet.