Sustainable Development With Environment Protection, Research Paper Example

As the human population expands, sustainable development and environmental protection have become great issues of concern.  Since environmental degradation in one region can diminish the circumstances of others on a global scale, the environmental problems have created a strong international demand for sustainable initiatives, but incomplete plans that are inconsistent in their focus and scope are typically presented and they do not consider vital sustainability concerns (Kirkwood, Lewis and Srai).  This prevents the plan from being effective in successfully achieving the intended goals (Lachman, Pint and Cecchine).  deplete In order to address the issues of inconsistence, it is essential that organizations installations create an environmental management system (EMS), which establishes long term goals that address the mission, community, and environmental issues developed through a strategic planning process. This includes identifying suitable renewable energy sources, like solar or wind, and solving the problematic issue of finite amounts of land available for development and human habitation (Stapleton, Cooney and Hix Jr).

Defining Sustainable Development

Ecologically sustainable development is a pattern of resource usage that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that those needs can be met not only in the present, but also for all future generations (Kravchenko and Bonine).  This concept brings together concern for the carrying capacity of natural systems with the social challenges facing the larger human population (Kravchenko and Bonine).  There are many options available for slow sand filtration from large units that can supply the entire village with clean water to stand-alone units that can be placed in each household. After looking at these options the most cost effective and simplistic option is the individual household unit. This brings the onus of maintenance and other relative concerns back to the family whose unit it is. This can stop conflict from poor maintenance practices and disputes over water availability. It is also a less complex method, as the maintenance requirements are lower due to the size. The design is built from natural materials and doesn’t detract from the natural surroundings, and it is also sensitive to local culture and customs.

The process of creating an EMS is defined as a continuing cycle of planning, implementing, reviewing, and improving the actions an organization takes to meet its environmental obligations (Huang and Shih). The green revolution and growing awareness of the compounding environmental problems have now become some of the most important issues worldwide. Environmental knowledge is defined as a system to connect data, analysis and people which presents an opportunity to formalize industrial ecology in a business setting and it merges the strengths of environmental management and knowledge management, making it a popular businesses tool currently being used to solve these pollution problems in conjunction with green supply chain management, which have both been widely adopted by corporations with the intent of reducing pollution and evaluating environmental performance (Huang and Shih). The journey to sustainable development has made environmental protection and performance two of the world’s most important priorities in (Huang and Shih).

The preceding decade has moved EMS away from a regulatory-based approach to one committed to focusing on continuous development and the surge in the use of knowledge management has indicated that this approach was first introduced in theoretical research and has since been developed for application in the identification and solving of a variety of problems (Huang and Shih). Both EMS and knowledge management have been extensively studied within the context of business management, detailing that the key aspect of successful EMS is effective knowledge management, which provides employees at all levels of an organization with a computerized and systemized method, which allows the staff to gain environmental awareness and make environmentally responsible business decisions (Huang and Shih). Creating an EMS helps organizations develop a systematic approach to meeting the business and environmental goals of the company. There are numerous benefits to be gained from implementing a stable EMS, which include: improved environmental performance, reduced liability, competitive advantages, improvements in compliance-related issues, a reduction in overall costs, increased employee involvement, fewer accidents, an improvement in the company’s public image, enhanced consumer trust, and better access to capital (Stapleton, Cooney and Hix Jr).  When attempting to create an EMS, the Initial Environmental Review (IER) is the most important first step.

Environmental Hazards

This rapid consumption of the Earth’s limited resources and the widespread destruction of the environment resulting from the surge of technological development is a legacy that endangers the lives of every living thing on this planet and is an inheritance we must immediately disown.  Air pollution, water pollution, soil contamination, noise pollution, and deforestation are all the results of humanity’s mindless consumption of all our environment has to offer.  Annihilation of millions of acres of vital rain forest and the natural habitats of indigenous species (which frequently leads to the affected specie’s extinction), acid rain and greenhouse effects, eutrophication (nitrogen and phosphorous pollution), loss of soil productivity, landfills, hazardous wastes, and irradiation are just some of the many ramifications of the disastrous activities that many people deem vital to humanity’s survival (Chertow).  Foolishly, we devastate the very environment that sustains us, causing irreparable damage and destroying things that can never be replaced.

The long-term effects of the consistent and systematic pollution of our environment are catastrophic and much of the damage done can never be undone.  Environmental pollution refers to the many ways in which human actions harm our natural environment (Chertow).  Air pollution is caused when industries and vehicles release vast quantities of gases and particulates into the air, which can be harmful to the health of plant, animal, and human life, damage buildings and other structures, and potentially change the global climate (Chertow).  Resultants of air pollution include smog, ozone, acid rain, chlorofluorocarbons, and high quantities of atmospheric gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, lead, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide, which can cause headaches, burning eyes, respiratory distress, asthma, cardiovascular, pulmonary, and lung dysfunction, and other diseases (Chertow; Our pollution).  These same chemicals, which are naturally occurring in the atmosphere on small levels, can be fatal to plant life in the gargantuan quantities in which they are released into the atmosphere due to human interference (Our pollution).

Our water supply is polluted through contamination from sewage, industrial and agricultural chemicals, metals, oils, livestock wastes, farm pesticides, phosphate detergents, and other substances released from businesses, farms, homes, industries, and many other sources (Chertow).  This pollution affects all our surface water sources, such as our rivers, lakes, and oceans, as well as our ground water supplies, which is very hard to treat once it is trapped in the aquifers, and is harmful to humans and many species of plants and animals (Chertow).  When more waste is placed into a water system than its natural cleansing process can handle, pollution occurs and can flow into drinking water, causing illnesses such as cholera, typhoid, schistosomiasis, and dysentery, resulting in more than five million deaths worldwide annually (Chertow; Facts about pollution).

Oil and chemical pollutants can be fatal to marine wildlife and cause long-term devastation to the environment.  Heated water released by power plants, called thermal pollution, reduces the amount of oxygen in the water, which can be potentially fatal to aquatic plants and animals and disrupt their ability to locate their breeding grounds (Chertow).  The disturbance in the natural balance of the water’s gases and the massive amounts of pollution have caused about forty percent of America’s rivers and lakes to be too polluted for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life (Facts about pollution). The Mississippi River, which carries drainage from about forty percent of the continental U. S., delivers an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of nitrogen pollution into the Gulf of Mexico annually, resulting in a hypoxic coastal dead zone the size of Massachusetts in the Gulf each summer (Our pollution).

Soil pollution occurs when the thin layer of fertile soil, which consists of bacteria, fungi, and small animals and is used for agriculture, is contaminated or destroyed (Chertow).  This can occur through overuse of fertilizers, improper irrigation, which leads to salt deposits; solid, municipal, and industrial waste, as well as spoil; hazardous waste, radiation, and pesticides from industrial ventures; and heavy metals, such as lead and mercury, from mining operations, industrial processes, solid waste incinerators, and motor vehicles (Chertow).  Billions of tons of solid waste is dumped into landfills and open dumps annually, releasing toxins through seepage and the unmonitored burning of solid waste.  Hazardous and radioactive materials can cause life-threatening illnesses such as cancer and their high toxicity levels make their removal from the environment extremely difficult once exposure has occurred.

Classifying Environmental Protection

The general definition of environmental management basically describes the process in which administrative functions of an organisation are used to develop, implement, and monitor the ecological policy of that group or an attempt by a business to regulate their impact on and interactions within the environment in order to preserve natural resources (Zenchanka).   Comprehensively, the concept of environmental management is geared towards helping organisations develop a systematic approach to curtailing the destruction done to the environment within the course of their doing business (Gregory, Ohlson and Arvai).  This includes innovating methods to reduce pollution, waste, and the consumption of natural resources through the implementation of an environmental action plan that amalgamates the most vital elements of ecological preservation, including an organization’s environmental policy statement, an environmental audit comprising an aspect/impact analysis, environmental management system, and external standards (Zenchanka).

The growing concern regarding environmental pollutants and creating a sustainable environment has led to numerous global sustainable initiatives, but often plans are developed that are inconsistent in their focus and scope, and do not fully address vital sustainability issues, which prevents the plan from being effective in successfully achieving the intended goals.  In order to address the issues of inconsistence, it is essential that organizations create an environmental management system (EMS), which is a concrete programme designed to establish long term goals that address the mission, community, and environmental issues created through the operation of the business within the district and is developed through a strategic planning process. The EMS will also incorporate the use of suitable renewable energy sources, like solar or wind, and solving the problematic issue of finite amounts of resources available as well as how this matter will be managed.  However, one of the most important factors in an EMS is the waste management aspect, as proper disposal of waste elements ensures that the environment remains liveable for all inhabitants.

Debt-for-climate swaps (and, more generally, debt-for-nature swaps) are agreements between creditors, either developed countries or international financial institutions, and developing country debtors (Larkin).  In bilateral swaps, a creditor agrees to forgive a developing country’s debt on the condition that the developing country fund and implement a domestic environmental program, such as to preserve forests (Konisky). Generally, non-governmental conservation organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund or Conservation International broker these bilateral swaps (Konisky). Sometimes, however, debt-for-climate swaps are three-party agreements between a creditor, a non-governmental conservation organization, and a developing country debtor (WWF).  In commercial swaps, creditors sell a developing country’s debt to a conservation organization at a reduced rate (Larkin). Then the conservation organization agrees to forgive part or all of the debt so long as the developing country funds and implements a domestic conservation program.  Dozens of countries have participated in debt-for-climate and other debt-for-nature swaps (Khalik).

Environmentalists praise such swaps for their potential to mitigate environmental degradation.  In 2002 debt-for-nature swaps topped Time Magazine’s list of most promising conservation strategies and the recent climate crisis has added impetus to the move towards debt-for-climate swaps (ENS).  Such swaps have already helped create large nature preserves. In 1987, for instance, Conservation International brokered a swap that created Bolivia’s Beni Biosphere Reserve (ENS).  In 2007, Peru agreed to protect ‘7.5 million acres of tropical rain forest containing pink river dolphins, jaguars, scarlet macaws and giant water lilies (Gunter).  And more recently, in 2009, Conservation International brokered a swap that will purportedly preserve Sumatra’s forests and protect its many endangered species (Gunter).

Others praise debt-for-climate (and nature) swaps for their potential to alleviate extreme poverty.  Developing countries often face crushing international debt burdens, which can interfere with their ability to eliminate or, at least, alleviate extreme poverty within their borders.  Because debt-for-climate swaps reduce the amount of money developing countries must spend servicing their debts, such swaps may help these countries lift their people out of extreme poverty (WWF).  At first blush, then, debt-for-climate swaps seem to provide win-win solutions to the problems of environmental degradation and extreme poverty. As such, one might naturally assume that debt-for-climate swaps are morally permissible, if not morally obligatory.

Although debt-for-climate swaps are supposed to reduce a debtor country’s international debt burden, this may not be enough for those offering such swaps to have discharged their moral duties to the people in that country. Whether those offering or brokering debt-for-climate swaps have discharged these duties depends on whether the swaps are sustainable a matter for empirical inquiry (Gunter).  Such inquiry must examine whether a debtor country can fulfill the conditions on a debt-for-climate swap while maintaining the necessary economic growth, domestic infrastructure, and/or redistributive mechanisms sufficient for securing the human rights of its people. Suppose, for instance, that the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) brokers a debt-for-climate swap between the U.S. and Indonesia, in which the U.S. agrees to forgive US$100 million of Indonesian debt so long as Indonesia agrees to institute a US$20 million conservation program designed to protect its tropical rainforest. The permissibility of such a swap will depend on inter alia its sustainability: the US$20 million conservation program must not prevent Indonesia from maintaining the economic growth, infrastructure, and redistributive mechanisms necessary to protect current and future generations of Indonesians from extreme poverty (WWF).

One might object that a debt-for-climate swap is permissible as long as it benefits a debtor country and its people. Rather than sustainability, one might say, perhaps the appropriate moral standard is that a swap just leaves a country better able to secure the rights of its people. Indeed, one might insist that swaps are only problematic if they make a country less able to secure the rights of its people. While this may be so on some moral framework, it is not so on the human rights framework (Larkin). This is because a swap can lighten a country’s debt burden, increase its ability to fulfill the rights of its people, and still prevent the country from completely fulfilling these rights.

Suppose, for instance, the U.S. offers to reduce Indonesia’s debt obligations if it agrees to create a nature reserve in a debt-for-climate swap. Even if the swap improves Indonesia’s political power and the average welfare of Indonesians, for instance, creating the reserve could still make it more difficult for Indonesia to help the very poor meet their basic needs (WWF). So, the permissibility of a debt-for-climate swap depends not simply on whether the debtor country and its people benefit from the swap. It also matters whether the country can protect its people from extreme poverty while fulfilling the environmental conditions placed on the swap (Khalik).

Nonetheless, there may be cases in which a particular debt-for-nature swap is the best a creditor (or broker) can do to help a debtor country protect its people from extreme poverty. Perhaps the level of poverty, or the level of environmental degradation, is just that severe. Such cases present terrible choices, where creditors (or brokers) must choose between making an otherwise impermissible offer and doing what (say) has better consequences for the poor or the environment. If an unsustainable debt-for-nature swap happens to be the morally best option available to a creditor or broker, then offering the swap may be the right thing to do in the circumstances. But this is a terrible choice even if it’s easy to make and no one is blameworthy for having to make it.

Environmental Protection through Environmental Management Systems

The concept of environmental management is commonly regarded as the administration of an organization’s activities, business, or companies that have or can have an impact on the environment (Ashall). The growing concern regarding environmental pollutants and creating a sustainable environment has led to numerous global sustainable initiatives, but often plans are developed that are inconsistent in their focus and scope, and do not fully address vital sustainability issues, which prevents the plan from being effective in successfully achieving the intended goals (Lachman, Pint and Cecchine).  In order to address the issues of inconsistence, it is essential that organizations installations create an environmental management system (EMS), which establishes long term goals that address the mission, community, and environmental issues developed through a strategic planning process. This includes identifying suitable renewable energy sources, like solar or wind, and solving the problematic issue of finite amounts of land available for development and human habitation (Kirkwood, Lewis and Srai).  Additionally, companies must endeavor to conserve energy and water while maintaining fully functional facilities that support productivity, efficiency, and morale while promoting the optimal use of land and space since the option of sprawl development is no longer available and land has become a finite resource (Edwards).

The preceding decade has moved EMS away from a regulatory-based approach to one committed to focusing on continuous development and the surge in the use of knowledge management has indicated that this approach was first introduced in theoretical research and has since been developed for application in the identification and solving of a variety of problems (Huang and Shih). Both EMS and knowledge management have been extensively studied within the context of business management, detailing that the key aspect of successful EMS is effective knowledge management, which provides employees at all levels of an organization with a computerized and systemized method, which allows the staff to gain environmental awareness and make environmentally responsible business decisions (Huang and Shih).

Creating an EMS helps organizations develop a systematic approach to meeting the business and environmental goals of the company. There are numerous benefits to be gained from implementing a stable EMS, which include: improved environmental performance, reduced liability, competitive advantages, improvements in compliance-related issues, a reduction in overall costs, increased employee involvement, fewer accidents, an improvement in the company’s public image, enhanced consumer trust, and better access to capital (Stapleton, Cooney and Hix Jr).  When attempting to create an EMS, the Initial Environmental Review (IER) is the most important first step.

Biodiversity & Environmental Stability

Biosecurity describes preventative measures employed to establish barriers for the purpose of preventing the intrusion and proliferation of invasive species, including the natural landscapes, native flora and fauna, and the ecosystem services and quality of life they provide.  Stable ecosystems are maintained through the fragile balance of the interactions and symbiotic relationships that exist between the various plants, animals, and insects, which can easily be disturbed or decimated by the introduction of invasive species into the environment, causing severe environmental and economic damage that can certainly result in the extinction of the entire ecosystem Within marine ecosystems, the sudden removal of large quantities of biomass, as occurs with large-scale commercial fishing, can have detrimental effects on the aquatic life, as can the introduction of invasive species through transferal via ships. Biodiversity is speculated to have significant bearing in the success of the integration of invasive species.

Research has demonstrated a correlation between marine plant density and biodiversity and the native species’ ability to resist invasion from nonnative invasive aquatic plants.  It is postulated that the more native species there are, the less habitat space is available, which severely limits the niche space open for occupation by the new or invasive marine plants. However, invasive species are most likely to be found in communities with the highest native species population, which creates a paradox that no matter how specious an ecosystem, native species do not resist invasion.  Marine ecosystems are highly codependent and very vulnerable to changes.  As ships traverse the numerous oceans and seas, they also transfer various marine wildlife that have attached to the ship’s hull, which can introduce invasive predatory species to various ecosystems through this transference.

Feral nonnative species can easily decimate the population of a native prey species once introduced into an established ecosystem.  This is most succinctly illustrated by the collapse of the marine ecosystem of the Black Sea due to the invasion of jellyfish and the closing of the Grand Banks cod fishery due to severe population decline from wanton overfishing. The hardiness of the invasive species and susceptibility of the ecosystem are strong determining factors in foretelling the successful establishment of the invasive species within the ecosystem they have been introduced to. Human encroachment on wildlife environments can cause biological invasions that can have strong ecological effects on native communities by altering ecosystem functions, species interactions, and community composition that have lasting impacts on the native species population dynamics and their overall fitness, which also affect their evolutionary path.  These can include plants and animals, but also microorganisms like bacterial strains and viruses that are not native to the region or area and human introduction causes or is likely to cause harm to the economy or the environment, or harms animal or human health.

Although most introduced species are not harmful, this classification is still encompasses all types of invasive organisms and makes a clear distinction between non-native (or alien) species and invasive species. As human populations increase, their need for land also increases and this need is often met by removal of native plant life from the area to allow humans to plant farms and use the land for other purposes, despite the fact that many of humanity’s essential needs, like air to breathe and fresh water, are supplied by the natural environments destroyed by encroachment. Humans have also introduced numerous plants, animals, and microorganisms into our natural ecosystems that have effectively caused premature species extinctions and altered the life cycle of the entire environment by changing the dynamics of the interactions of the remaining species.

When ecosystems are altered, changed, or destroyed, animals that practice niche conservatism are effected the most because their behavioral patterns have been ingrained through generations and they are often the least able to adapt. Species that profligate only within certain abiotic and biotic environs can easily be strongly affected by the invasion of a competing species, as demonstrated earlier with the barred owl, and as is apparent when humans usurp the habitats of various species, many of which become extinct due to their inability to adapt or evolve.  Invasive species frequently require the same living conditions as the native flora and fauna, which determines their ability to flourish within the new environment.  However, the perturbation to the natural environment caused by the assimilation of these nonnative species has the ability to cause tremendous economic problems for those in the affected areas.  Invasion by weedy and exotic plants can cause farmers or florists much distress as they struggle to permanently remove the undesirable plants and can be very expensive in terms of removal costs, loss of crops, and loss of profit.

Conclusion

Sustainability is not a quick fix solution, but a continual concerted effort that requires consistency, diligence, and commitment as well as a radical change in the way we build, buy, move, and do stuff (Biondi, Frey and Iraldo).  It is not an individual initiative, but one that requires participation from all of humanity and it is essential to keep engaged, active teams together over the long haul (Klooster). Outreach must be continuous- The planning process itself is tremendously inclusive; but don’t make the mistake of thinking that “everyone” knows about it.  In reality, the planning process engages 100 or so critical decision makers and implementers from the installation and community.  The challenge of the implementation step is that the next “layer” of players must now be engaged-those that will have to change the way they do their work or business in order to meet the sustainability goals. Some ways that installation sustainability planners have done this includes integrating sustainability concepts and information into appropriate installation training classes, newcomers’ briefings, town hall meetings, internet “community news” and the post and local newspapers (Turnbull).

Works Cited

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