Sustainable Living

SUSTAINABLE LIVING

Are the countries going to live sustainably in the future?

Introduction:

Sustainable living depicts a way of life that gives attempts to reduce a person s use of natural resources. In today s world, we could see that human acts are having a noteworthy effect on most of the countries and one of them is depletion of our natural resources (Withgott Brennan, 2011, Chapter 1).

This topic is important because in the present time we consume a lot of natural resources every day and the natural resources are being scarce. And this is the reason I chose this topic because I think people who are living don t know that natural resources are not enough so they have to live sustainably and so that I could make people understand the importance of natural resources.

Global Perspective:

Sustainable living means living sustainably for example using natural resources in the way like it s left for the future generation1 and by this there can be a sustainable development but now a day s population is rising by a greater percentage, and rising population is a cause that we are not living sustainably. Other causes of we not living sustainably are climate change, global warming, depletion of ozone layer and the resource depletion.

In 2015, according to the global goals for sustainable development the world leader agreed to some of the goals for sustainable development such as no poverty, end hunger quality health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, reduced inequalities, life below water, climate actions, life on land, responsible consumption modern sustainable energy, Partnerships for these SDGs etc.

Lester R. Brown, a prominent environmentalist on 27 December 2016 described sustainable living in the twenty-first century as "shifting to a renewable energy-based, reuse/recycle economy with a diversified transport system" (O Neil, 2018) and this means that this world should start making the use of renewable energy resources less, and should start practicing the 3Rs as they help to conserve natural resources, save energy, reduce pollution.

This argument was a strong one as he has described sustainable living and ways to overcome in only one phrase and in a good way and its strong because the statement isn t that old and because he has stated this in a Way Back Machine. There are less number of countries who do this, so if all the countries start doing this, so the chances of renewable energy resources being left for the future generation can get higher.

Foreign policy and fund for peace composed a Failed States Index2 by looking at some political, economic and social indicators which can be utilized as an instrument to distinguish what may drive a country to the failure and some of them are poverty, economic decline, human rights, demographic pressure etc.

There is an interactive map or an indicator of 178 countries in the whole world from Failed States Index, which shows the number of countries being at what stage of sustainability for example there are only 1.2 countries who are actually living sustainably, 25 countries who aren t that sustainable nor they are unsustainable, 90 countries who aren t sustainable and are kind of unsustainable and there are approximately 34 countries living unsustainably.

On 7 TH of February Daniel O Neill of the University of Leeds and colleagues asked Can we provide good lives for the seven billion people on Earth without wrecking the planet (O Neil, 2018) this question in a recent paper in the journal Nature Sustainability. After doing a lot of research on this question Daniel O Neill came up with the answer that there s not even a single nation that can meet the essential needs of its citizens in a way that is sustainable. And he stated that: When we started, we kind of thought, surely, out of 150 different countries, there will be some shining star, we really didn t find that (O Neil, 2018), and this shows that the countries which are kind of sustainable doesn t fulfill the basic needs of its citizens in a sustainable way.

And to provide a better quality of life to the people of the country this planet would require, in the same paper on 7 th of February Daniel O Neill stated: two to six times the sustainable level for resources (O Neil, 2018). This means that things have to change, countries should start thinking about its future generation, and about its natural resources as the world would be needing two times double of natural resources than present time.

He has stated a very strong statement and we can even see now the same happening and it s strong because he has asked it in a journal newspaper and he is the student of university of leads and because he stated it in a very good way, so that people could understand his question and the statement isn t really old.

This all shows that sustainable livings is at odds with industrialization or we can say with the world because there are less number of countries living sustainably and more number of countries living unsustainably and those countries aren t thinking about the coming generation.

Local/National Perspectives:

There are many countries where people aren t living sustainably. They are using natural resources in a very high amount and this shows that natural resources are not going to be left for the future generation. High standards of living for all the world inhabitants would require up to six times as many resources as the planet can sustainably provide (Gabbatiss, 2018) , this is what new global study has found and as we all know natural resources left are not enough for us this means that the future generation will be needing six times the double of natural resources as we have now, and the world cannot provide them with this in a sustainable manner as the world lacks natural resources because WE are using natural resources way too much.

This was a strong argument as it is stating truth about what s going to happen in this world in the future, it is strong in a way because it isn t that old and the argument is supported very well. It has been explained in very understandable manner and it s strong because it s founded by new global studies.

There are 17 objectives of sustainable development according to global goals of sustainable development, and the 7 th one is percentage of the population with access to clean energy and technology, levels of CO2 released through the burning of fossil fuels and the amount of renewable energy used in the consumption of energy and according to a report when it comes to this target, Portugal drives the field.

It is showed in a report compiled by 15 independent countries for United Nations, that Portugal has been positioned among the world`s 30 most sustainable nations it scored 76.4 points out of potential maximum of 100 and because of this it has been placed on 26th position out of 162 countries in the whole world. But even if it s on 26th position of being sustainable, it s not enough because the results of Portugal shows that it still has problems regarding some of the goals of sustainability.

According to Lisa News Agency, one of the goals for sustainability was action on climate change which was to take some urgent measures to fight the climate alterations caused by national policies, strategies and Portugal received a negative in terms of this objective. The most sustainable living country in the whole world is Switzerland with a score of 87.42.

There is a comparison between Switzerland and Portugal regarding their environmental sustainability and social performance. Blue part in that circle shows social performance associated with meeting basic needs and it as well shows the reason of Switzerland being the most sustainable country in the whole world. That circle actually shows the important factors involved in making the country s economy strong. So life satisfaction in Portugal is 5.2 (0-10 Cantril scale) and in Switzerland its 7.5, because of this people in Switzerland are more satisfied with their lives. Healthy Life Expect means how many years are the people in the country going to live healthy and in Portugal its 70.5years and in Switzerland its 84years.

This shows that Switzerland enjoys one of the highest life expectancies and the Swiss are among the healthiest people on earth. Sanitation, Income and Access to energy are all 100 means that everybody has access to improved sanitation and electricity and earn above $1.90 per day. And the Education in Portugal and Switzerland is equal, 96.2%. In the comparison, the Social Support and Democratic Quality for Portugal has been given and not for Switzerland and its 85.6% and 0.9. Here comes the 2 most important factors, Equality and Employment. In Switzerland equality is 69.1 and employment is 96 and in Portugal its 63.7 and 87.3. This all shows that why Portugal isn t that sustainable.

Causes and courses of action:

Unsustainability takes birth when the countries start to lack natural resources. Basically unsustainability is the lack of natural resources and this is caused by being irresponsible and not using natural resources wisely. Unsustainability in every country is mostly caused by the country s government being irresponsible and not taking charge of where the natural resources are going. The main thing that causes unsustainability in the countries is the Population growth. The increase in population is giving birth to unsustainability in the country as the increase in population means increase in the basic needs and this leads to an increase in use of natural resources.

The governments of unsustainable countries aren t making any rules or laws. To reduce unsustainability in the country, the government should make rules regarding the use of natural resources and pass laws regarding it. And government should discourage the population growth as the natural resources are depleting. And if not, so the government can use different ideas to reduce unsustainability for example practicing the 3Rs, planting more trees and many more.

Reflection:

In the beginning of my work or even before, whenever I heard of sustainable living I used to think that it s only about natural resources and that every country is living and is developed sustainably. But when I started doing the research for my report, I was shocked I got to know that the governments of the countries aren t doing anything to insure the better future for the citizen, they are not keeping an eye on where are the resources getting utilized.

I didn t know that the world has lost a very good amount of natural resources and that half of the countries in this world are living unsustainably. I acquired a lot of knowledge, and after the research I got to know the problems every country is suffering from such as lack of natural resources, future of the citizens being insecure, the economic problems and many more. Every country should at least try to live sustainably.

Personal Response / Conclusion:

The countries in this world has adopted different techniques which has resulted in the increase in unsustainability of the countries and have been proved harmful in many ways. The actual problem is the natural resources being limited and not being able to fulfill the country s demand and the increase in the population, these are the two major issues in every country and has placed a big stress on the country. Natural resources are limited in the world, and there are less chances of them being available in the future, and this is all because of an increase in the use of natural resources overall.

The problems aren t solving because the government isn t taking any action to solve the problems, they are not making any rules, or passing laws and because of this most of the countries fail to achieve the goals of sustainability and live sustainably.

The aim is to live sustainably without having a negative impact on the environment and we can attain this by government bringing rules and regulation, using natural resources in a sustainable manner and using renewable resources more than nonrenewable resources. This will surely help the countries in the future!

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