Most people, if asked, would easily be able to define the
word “life”. The Webster Dictionary describes the word as, “the general or
universal condition of human existence. And so I pose the question, how do we
sustain this state we refer to as “living”? Again, the question is relatively
simple, human survival is simple in its most basic form. To sustain life, a
human being must have food, water, and shelter. The world started off in this
way. At the beginning of human existence the biggest issues to overcome
involved finding something to safe to eat and discovering a secure place to
sleep at night. However, the world has changed a great deal since those early
beginnings and although some may still be focused on solving the world’s most
basic issues, most have created new ones that now need to be tackled.
With the advancements of the human race come bigger, perhaps more cumbersome problems that need to be dealt with. The big issue I am referring to is something called sustainability. We now are faced with sustaining life in our country as well as all over the world. If this concept seems cumbersome, don’t worry because I am about to break it down into its most basic elements.
What I really mean when I am referring to this abstract concept, “sustainability”, is preserving and bettering all of the systems we have put in place to improve the lives of human beings. You see, we have come a long way from fighting to survive and now we are working to make human existence much more enjoyable. In doing this, we focus mainly on the three aspects of sustainability: the economic aspect, the social aspect, and the environmental aspect. Technically everything we do should potentially benefit one of these aspects of sustainability and not take away from the others. However, this is quite often not the case. In fact, we often focus too much on one aspect and completely neglect the others.
In the United States, the rejection of any form of socialism creates the opportunity to neglect the social and environmental aspects of sustainability and focus solely on the economic aspects. People in the United States have begun to value money over everything else. But is there anything wrong with that? Well, this question is hard to answer quite honestly. It’s a matter of opinion obviously, however using the concept of sustainability, we can pull out some simple facts: maintaining an equilibrium between a focus on the economy, social issues, and environmental issues promotes sustainability. If we look at it this way, then technically focusing too heavily on economics may be partially sustainable for a short amount of time, however in the long run this system will not support human life.
The reason why I am so interested in this topic and therefore the reason that I would like to share it with all of you, is that this concept is applicable to almost every part of life, past and present and understanding this concept can help us to make people’s lives better. For example, in studying the indigenous tribes of the New World, I learned that the respect they held for nature allowed them to build entire empires with very little damage to the world around them. They were constantly aware of the impact that their lives had on the environment and tried their best to keep any negative impacts to a minimum. These practices can be studied and learned from today and although, we have advanced quite a bit since these times, many of these old concepts could be used to improve society today.
Hopefully, I have given you all the basic idea of sustainability and its inherent importance in life. I believe that the three aspects of sustainability are the basis of all of the issues surrounding “life” and in discussing this particular concept I hope to have given you all a little bit of background information to fully understand issues that I would like to discuss in the future. Thanks for reading!
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/category/sustainability/?_r=0
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas#Culture
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting post! It’s a great introduction to this subject. I did not know much about sustainability, not even what it meant. You did a really great job explaining it, and I appreciate that I now have a better understanding of the topic of sustainability!
One part of your post that I found extremely interesting concerned the tribes of the New World. Because it interested me so much, I decided to look up some information about it, which is the sign of a good blog post! But what I discovered correlates a lot with what you mentioned. Although their cultures were diverse and unable to be pinned down to one defining factor, the environment surrounding them, dependent on their geographic location, always seemed to be made a priority. The people learned to work with the ecosystems around them, rather than working against them. They learned that they can be profitable and successful overall if they utilize what is around them without harming it. Some of this reverence for the environment stems from their religion. Before the introduction of Catholicism and Protestantism, no single, all-powerful deity was worshipped; rather the tribe members praised a multitude of spirits. In order to get in touch with these spirits, ceremonial acts were typically used. In order to perform these ceremonies, nature needed to be included, usually being one of the tools used to praise the spirits. The one act mentioned in the article I discovered was called sand painting. The paint colors was made of sand, charcoal, cornmeal, and pollen, and they were applied to stone to depict specific spirits. Also, from lessons in school, I remember reading about how tribes of the New World, specifically those on the Great Plains, tried to utilize every part of the buffalo that they killed. They believed that every part of the body could be useful, and they prayed after hunting. These tribes had the right idea in regards to sustainability, but, unfortunately, we did not adopt their practices and modernize them to fit our new and changing world.
I also believe with your statement that we seem to focus heavily on one aspect of sustainability, but tend to ignore the other parts. This is not an efficient way to look at things because they are all of equal importance. We are unable to fully address the problem because we have not yet mastered looking at all of the facets of sustainability and, as a result, we cannot create a solution. However, environmentally friendly products and technology might be that step closer to reaching the solution. By reading your blog and comparing what I discover in terms of new eco-friendly technology, I think we could think more deeply into the topic of sustainability and think about solutions to this issue that plagues not only the US, but the world as a whole. I’m really interested in your topic, and I can’t wait to read more about the topic as well as your thoughts!
http://seniorsecondary.tki.org.nz/Social-sciences/Education-for-sustainability/Key-concepts/Aspects-of-sustainability
ReplyDeleteMoving toward the future, the issues surrounding sustainability will be the most challenging ones facing the world. This proves to be the case because issues of sustainability never have only one side to them. Instead, these problems must be attacked from at least three different angles. As you pointed out in your blog, the main areas of focus are economic, social, and environmental. It is impossible in most cases to weigh the claims of one side more than the others when in comes to finding a solution to any problem. Because of the different groups of stakeholders related to each of the three categories seeing different outcomes as being the best for their well being, any kind of solution is hard to come by. Sticking to the theme of early Americans and sustainability, I'll use an example of the American bison on the Great Plains. As American settlers pushed westward, they began killing bison at alarming rates, pushing the species to the brink. This process allowed settlers to sell hides and clear land for farming. It also helped keep bison herds from blocking the newly constructed railroads crossing the nation which were vital to the American economy and the spread of American society. These practices were not well taken by the tribes of the Great Plains who's society revolved around bison for nearly every aspect of survival. Additionally the bison provided an environmental benefit to the region by fertilizing the plains and over turning top soil. Although the settlers nearly always had their way on this issue, it represents the problems created by having multiple sides to every sustainability issue.
I found it very fascinating how you talked about the basic parts to sustainability, which are the basic things needed to sustain life being food, water, and shelter. Yet, every time the issue of sustainability is brought up for discussion it is never these basic needs that are brought up. Instead, it is very large ideas such as energy, waste management, or climate change that steal the show. With the lack of discussion on the basic needs of life, there are still large parts of the global population that still need to fight for these basic necessities.