Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The decline of the age of oil will require a transition to other transport
fuels, first to gas and then to hydrogen. Rail, already cheaper than road
transport, may become the predominant transport mode as it can be run on
electricity. Even with current technology, it seems feasible to produce signif-
icant amounts of electrical power with solar-based energy. Achieving gov-
ernment commitment to adequate research in renewable energy, however,
may be more difficult than technological advance itself.
What should be done?
So how do we forge a new sustainability paradigm?
We stated earlier that the term
refers to the capacity of
human systems to provide for the full range of human concerns over the
long term and that sustainability, when applied to humans, refers both to
long-term survival of the species and the quality of their lives.
Global sustainability will require that we recognise and act upon the
gross inequalities of access to natural resources and to health care between
industrialised and developing countries.
In moving towards a sustainable future, we will need to ensure that we
avoid eroding the natural resource base, provide substantial global equality
of opportunity, and keep the size of the human population within ecological
limits.
In addition, if in future we wish to address the needs of all Australians, all
will need to feel connected to society and have a sense of their role and place
in it. In this, we cannot avoid issues of spirituality. At the broadest level, spir-
ituality can be thought of as that part of their lives that provides individuals
with a sense of 'connectedness', meaning and purpose. In the view of many,
the global epidemic of drug dependency and the Australian suicide epidemic
are related to an increasingly unmet human need to feel connected both to
the natural world and to the human family.
Now that we belong to a globalised world, it no longer makes sense to
think of sustainability only at the national level. There are, however, major
national issues that must be addressed at the same time as Australia plays a
humane and responsible role in the world community.
sustainability
Values change needed
According to the Global Scenario Group, the transition to sustainability is
going to require a drastic change in conventional values, economic struc-
tures and social arrangements (Raskin 2002). The first wave of sustainability