Sustainable development
If we use up all the fish, cut down all the trees and pump dry all the water today, what is left for our children tomorrow? Sustainable development is the powerful idea that we can grow and improve life now WITHOUT robbing future generations of their chance to do the same. In this lesson we build the famous definition and its three pillars — economy, society and environment — then look closely at how we use the natural world, contrasting using a resource wisely with exploiting it until it is gone (overfishing, deforestation, over-grazing, over-pumping water) and the Namibian answers of quotas, replanting, conservancies and solar power. We finish by discussing Sustainable Development Goal 12 — responsible consumption and production.
By the end you should be able to (NSSCO Development Studies 1.2):
- Define sustainable development, and explain its three pillars — economy, society and environment — that must all be balanced
- Describe and illustrate sustainable development with reference to the natural environment and the use and exploitation of resources, contrasting renewable and non-renewable resources and sustainable use with over-exploitation
- Discuss the Sustainable Development Goal on responsible consumption and production (SDG 12): reduce, reuse, recycle, less waste, cleaner production and buying only what you need