Sustainable Development

There is a growing feeling among scientists and politicians that if we carry on behaving as we are, we may end up causing huge problems for future generations…

Sustainable development needs careful planning. Human activities can damage the environment (e.g. pollution). And some of the damage we do can’t easily be repaired (e.g. the destruction of the rainforest).

We need to plan carefully to make sure that our activities today don’t mess things up for future generations- this is the idea behind the sustainable development…

Sustainable development meets the needs of today’s population without harming the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

This isn’t easy- it needs detailed thought at every level to make it happen. For example, governments around the world will need to make careful plans. But so will the people in charge at a regional level.

Reduction in biodiversity could be a big problem. Biodiversity is the variety of different species in an area – the more species, the higher the biodiversity.

Ecosystem (especially tropical rainforests) can contain a huge number of different species, so when a habitat is destroyed there is a danger of many species becoming extinct – biodiversity is reduced.

This causes a number of lost opportunities for human and problems for those species that are left:

c) There are probably loads of useful products that we will never know about because the organisms that produced them have become extinct. Newly discovered plants and animals are a great source of new foods, new fibres for clothing and new medicines, e.g. the rosy periwinkle flower from Madagascar has helped treat Hodgkin’s disease(a type of cancer), and a chemical in the saliva of a leech has been used to help prevent blood clots during surgery.

d) Loss of one or more species from an ecosystem unbalances it e. g. the extinct animal’s predators may die out or be reduced. Loss of biodiversity can have a ‘snowball effect’ which prevents the ecosystem providing things we need, such as rich soil, clean water, and the oxygen we breathe.

Human impact can be measured using indicator species. Some organisms are very sensitive to changes in their environment and so can be studied to see the effect of human activities – these organisms are known as indicator species. For example, air pollution can be monitored by looking at particular types of lichen, which are very sensitive to levels of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere (and so can give a good idea about the level of pollution from car exhausts, power stations, etc.) The number and type of lichen at a particular location will indicate how clear the air is.

e) If raw sewage is released into a river, the bacterial population in the water increases and uses up the oxygen. Animals like mayfly larvae are good indicators for water pollution, because they are very sensitive to the level of oxygen in the water.

Поиск по сайту: