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A five minute talk on Sustainable Development


Hello,

Today the title of this talk is SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT and being the young generation, I believe it is of strong interest. 


Let's try to find what sustainable development stands for?

As the name suggests, sustainable development is a pathway to achieve sustainability.

It is a combination of Economic development, Social development, and Environmental protection.


Let us take an analogy.

We were in desperate need of social development when the Britishers left, so the solution was to fasten the economic development and we termed it the industrial and green revolution. But environmental protection was not taken into account at that time. So we achieved economical and social development but failed to consider protecting the environment.


Sustainable development has 3 pillars:

1. Economic development

2. Social development

3. Environmental protection


So the simplest definition of sustainable development is:

It is an organizing principle for meeting HUMAN DEVELOPMENT GOALS (both social and economic) and at the same time sustaining the ability of the natural system to provide natural resources and ecosystem services.

Now every time I have to use natural resources and ecosystem services, I'll use the word NATURAL CAPITAL.


See, economic and societal development is dependent on natural resources and ecosystem services. HOW? 


Natural resources are of two types :

Renewable and nonrenewable 

Wind, water, sun, and earth's heat are renewable and oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy are non-renewable. 


The protection provided by the ozone layer, and the climate stabilizing effect of the Amazonian forest are the ecosystem services. 

So you can easily understand how human development goals are dependent on natural capital. 

The concept of sustainable development has been and still is, subject to criticism. 

Let's take the reference of the industrial revolution again. 

"There was massive use of non-renewable natural resources and there is no such thing as sustainable use of non-renewable resources. We have a finite amount of these resources and any positive rate of exploitation will eventually lead to the exhaustion of earth's finite resources.

And some people might even think why there is an immediate need for sustainable development. 

See. 

Natural resources are depleting at a pace that they will eventually come to an end. 

In reference to ecosystem services, they cannot be substituted, the ozone layer is depleting because of the high release of GHGs. 

To refer to data, the release of CO2 has increased more than three times from 1960 to 2020.

We are now aware of what is sustainable development, how human development goals are dependent on natural capital, and why we need sustainable development. 

Now the main question is, HOW TO ACHIEVE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. 

1. For renewable resources :

Rate of consumption = rate of generation 

2. For non-renewable resources :

Equivalent development of renewable substitutes. 

Waste generation should not exceed the assimilation capacity of the environment. 

But as of present, we are in an unsustainable situation where natural capital is used way faster than it can be replenished. 

The case of human development now is :

The economic growth rate is directly proportional to the use of natural resources. 

The idea behind achieving sustainable development is to convert the linear path of material flow to circular material flow and reuse of material as much as possible. 

Linear material flow :

Generation ➡ use ➡ throw 

Circular material flow :

Generation ➡ use ➡ combined with repair, sharing, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacturing, and recycling so that minimal waste of resources occurs. 

The need of the hour is to 

➡ Reverse the damage done to the ecosystem which you already know is caller ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION. 

➡ Decrease the rising GHGs

➡ Sustainable agriculture 


What are SDGs ( SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS)?

Collection of 17 interlinked global goals. These goals are broad and interdependent. 

These were set in 2015 but UN- GA (united nation general assembly) and intended to be achieved by 2030 AKA agenda 2030.

But the harsh reality is that no one wants to talk about the environmental crisis. We are so busy in our small joyous life that we have forgotten our duties as adults. So here's a question that will always persist. 

" Out of our desperate efforts to live our lives joyfully, who will take the responsibility of conserving what we have been given by nature? " 

" If we won't, no one will " 

Thank you.

Location: India

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