Annual Convention of Citizens for a Greener Plant, Essay Example

Wikipedia (2009) describes sustainable development as a pattern of using resources that is done with an objective of satisfying human needs while keeping the environment from danger so that the needs can be met both in the present and in future. Sustainable development is used seen to connect the population of natural systems with the challenges faced by humanity that are of a social nature. It can also be divided into three components which are; economic, environmental and sociopolitical sustainability. This therefore implies that sustainable development does not solely tackle environmental issues but also looks at the economic and social development in the society.

Easter Island is the most famous archaeological site yet the most remote inhabited island located in the southeastern of Pacific Ocean that is described to be small and hilly. It is famous for eight hundred and eighty seven monumental statues. Historically, the people in Easter Island are said to have destroyed their forest, made the plants and animals become extinct and affected the society as a whole because they caused confusion and disorders. Everything was connected to the over-exploitation of the resources of the island.

Diamond (2005) states factors that commonly contribute to the general collapsing of societies. Some of these factors stated were; cutting down of forests and destroying habitats, issues concerning soil, poor management of water, fishing so much such that the level of fish reduces below the acceptable level, over-practicing pursuing living animals, the consequences of new species on native species, too much population and increased per-capita effect on people. Over the years there has been more factors contributing to the collapse of both present and future communities. These are: – accumulation of toxins in the environment, change of climate that had been caused by human activity, full utilization of the capacity if the earth in photosynthesis by the human and any bottleneck in energy supply.

Mongabay (2009) explains that Amazon forest on the other hand, has been reported to have very high percentages of deforestation resulting from cattle ranches and the other smaller percentage comes as a result of small-scale subsistence agriculture. In short, large-scale farming has a small effect on the overall deforestation of the Amazon. There have been several reasons as to why there has been deforestation in the Amazon forest and these are; clearing for cattle pasture which is in other terms described as cattle ranching, colonization and subsequent subsistence agriculture that entails farmers settling on lands in the forest that as encouraged by land policies set by the government. The other three activities that cause deforestation are improvement in infrastructure, commercial agriculture and logging.

Infrastructure improvements is brought about by activities such as road construction which provides an avenue where mining and logging sites open the forest land known as frontier to exploitation. Commercial agriculture on the other hand is listed because of farming of soybeans and has been reported to be the very most important contributor to deforestation. However, a new quality of soybean was made available for use so as to prosper in climate of rainforest. Lastly, there is logging is controlled by licensing under strict supervision and this is done with an aim of restricting timber harvesting to appointed areas.

Otieno (2007) explains that just from the definition, sustainable development should allow for future development and should also be a way of double-tasking by providing for our wants and making sure that the future generation has a way to satisfy their needs too. All this can simply be made a reality by ensuring that the use of environmental resources is done economically.

References

Diamond J. M (2005) Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. United States: Viking          Press

Mongabay (20(2009)09). Deforestation in the Amazon. Retrieved on October 12, 2009 from             http://www.mongabay.com/brazil.html

Otieno E.O (2007). Sustainable Development: Is a reality or a phantom? Retrieved on October 12, 2009 from http://www.tigweb.org/../article.html

Wikipedia (2009).Sustainable Development. Retrieved on October 12, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_development