Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
showing how, especially since the middle years of the twentieth century, environmental
campaigners, sustainability educators, politicians and business people have struggled
to come to terms with our negative impact on the planet's ecosystems. So, from the
1970 Earth Day to the contemporary international negotiations about climate
change, sustainable development has been viewed as a necessary but elusive process
operating various scales, including the global and local level. It may also take differ-
ent forms in different places and at different times. It has been subject to many
different interpretations but has informed the national policy goals of small and
large nations alike. For some people, sustainable development is a contradiction in
terms. Development means economic growth and sustainability refers to living,
working, producing and consuming within ecological limitations while ensuring that
economic growth continues as a way of combating poverty, disease and other hard-
ships. Others suggest that growth is not the way and the challenge of sustainable
development is to square the circle without being dismissed as hopelessly unrealistic
or impractical. Thus, sustainable development requires learning and the willingness
of everyone to enter into dialogue with each other to find ways by which a better
life can be found for every creature on this planet.
Thinking questions
1
Examine your own everyday activities, purchases, enjoyments, work, travel,
holidays and so on. In what ways is globalization part of our everyday life
experience? Note down examples from your own work and life experience.
2
How would you characterize your own view on globalization and sustainability?
3
What is the lasting value of the big international conferences on sustainable
development?
4
Can sustainable development occur in any one country?
5
What is the significance of devising a set of global Sustainable Development
Goals?
6
What are the advantages and disadvantages of conceiving sustainable development
as a dialogue of values?
Companion website
To find out more about the relationship between globalization and sustainable
development, please visit the companion website for additional case studies.
