What is Sustainability?

"The third 'E' represents equity, that is, social equity or equality. Equity includes freedom from unhealthy living conditions and equal access to food, water, employment, education, and healthcare. Equity means providing opportunities for all people, not just a privileged few, to grow and flourish in their own way." (Robertson 2014)

I think the third E might be the most important E of the three. Most everyone agrees that restoring the ecosystem and improving the economy are good steps to achieving sustainability, but when it comes to equality we have not taken appropriate steps to begin to achieve it. The gap between the poor and the wealthy in the United States seems to grow every year with no solution in sight. This is even worse in other parts of the world. If everyone can work towards equality it will help us achieve the ultimate goal which is sustainability.

The Three E's of Sustainability posted by Luis Camargo

"the ESA is also intended to help threatened or endangered species recover. once a species has done through a listing process and has been listed as threatened or endangered, FWS and NMFS are required to create a detailed recovery plan... Existence of this law has not prevented species from going extinct at an accelerating rate..." (Robertson 2014)

I think it is interesting that these laws has not at least slowed down the extinction of animals. I know just recently that honey bees has been added to this list. I know that the US cannot regulate outside of there borders so these laws are not in affect everywhere you go. The whole world needs to come together and figure out a plan to slow down the extinction of animals. It will be interesting to see what becomes of this once cloning is figured out. Through cloning you would think that they would be able to reverse at least some of the affects of extinction and would maybe be able to bring some species back. Scientist are already try to extract DNA from fossils to see if they can bring back animals that have been extinct for thousands of years. This could get dangerous though and should be regulated on what type of animals are allowed to be brought back. We should learn our lesson from the Jurassic Park movies.

Jaguar, Endangered species, Costa Rica by Jose Lino

"Many of the agreements made at the Rio Earth Summit have not been realized...Their report found progress was uneven and identified trends including widening economic inequalities and continued deterioration of the global environment." (Robertson 2014)

I think this sections perfectly sums up why we are not moving faster as a planet to obtain sustainability. It seems that every nation person/country is out for themselves and do not really care how that affects anyone else. All these countries come together and agree on certain rules to follow to help better the environment and instead of following these rules, these countries do whats best for them. This has widened the economic gap between the rich and poor and it has further hurt our environment. That is going against all three E's that we learned about. Within the past month you have seen reports from China about the smog levels in their cities. It is almost to the point where you cant see anything when you are driving. Its going to take something irreversible to happen to the environment in order for these countries to start taking steps towards sustainability and by that point it will be to late.

A view of air pollution over the CCTV building in Beijing, China by Sean Gallagher

Sources

Camargo, L. (2013, June 13). The Three E's of Sustainability. Retrieved January 17,2017, from  http://www.sustainabilitycoalition.org/the-three-es-of-sustainability/

Gallagher, S. (2012, January 20). Behind the smog that ate Beijing – Sean Gallagher – photographer, Beijing, china. Retrieved January 17, 2017, from Sean Gallagher Visuals, http://gallagher-photo.com/2012/01/20/behind-the-smog-that-ate-beijing/

2013, j. (2013). Jaguar, endangered species, Costa Rica. Retrieved January 17, 2017, from http://joselino.photoshelter.com/image/I00002gnJhKMozpg

Robertson, M. (2014). Sustainability principles and practice. Abingdon,Oxon: Routledge.