March of Progress towards Sustainability - By Eng. Suran Fernando
Watch the theme video titled ‘Engineering the Green Future’ produced by the Building Services Engineering Sectional Committee (BSESC) for Techno 2018 exhibition.
Sustainable Development –‘the’alternative!
Since the beginning of mankind, both humans & nature had an enduring mutual relationship. About a century ago man opened a new geological era where he himself stated to change the nature on his own will. Though the technological advancements resulted substantial economic growth and social development,its impact on the environment was adverse. Especially over the past seventy years or so, humans have changed the ecosystems rapidly & extensively than in any comparable period in history for the sake of the development.
The earth is gradually reaching the day that mankind could not afford to go on ‘business as usual’ anymore with respect to its environment. The deliberate large-scale manipulation of the environment has the risk of serious unintended side effects.
The past development caused the three key elements of the human environment (nature, economy & society) to move apart. The resolution of the resultant issues can be achieved if those three elements can be brought back as close as possible. This will automaticallyyield economic, social and environmental benefits.
The development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs is called theSUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.
The age of Anthropocene
The ‘Age of Anthropocene’or the ‘Age of Humans’is an era of the occurrence of an unprecedented impact of human activities on the green planet. The agrarian society was transformed to an industrial society when fossil fuels take up the role of the prime energy source in this human driven era.The most recognized Anthropocene started with beginning of industrial revolution (1780s-1830s). Even though this was a time of economic growth and development, this revolution impacted the environment in adverse ways. While manyleapfrog technological advancements were experienced by the mankind within this era, the world saw a major increase in population. This increase itself led to environmental changes simply because, there were more people consuming more natural resources.
The Great Acceleration
“This first stage of the Anthropocene ended abruptly around 1945, when the most rapid and pervasive shift in the human-environment relationship began.”
- Will Steffen, Paul J. Crutzen and John R. McNeill
The second half of the 20th century is quite exceptional in the history of human existence.With the ending of the World War - II, human activities were drastically changed the prevailing environment. The use of natural resources was increased at an increased rate. The requirement of power and energy were rapidly increasing. Explosion of globalization of world economy, communication and transportation were the key factors for industrial development.
World population has surpassed 7 billion in 2011 and are on track to hit 9 billion by 2040. World economic output passed the $125 trillion mark in 2017. The economic and population growth has come at a cost, impact to the planet earth.
Source: www.igbp.net
The Great Acceleration
From the anthropogenic epoch to the present, people have been forgetting the importance of environment and it is being heavily misused and mismanaged. Environment is getting polluted day by day.
As automatic response to the rapid man-made changes in the planet, the eco system too showed some rapid changes in its behavior which have been depicted by the exponential shifts in many key environmental indicators. This includes the change in water cycle, warming the atmosphere, melting the glaziers, air pollution, increase in acidity in oceans, extinction of species etc.Those changes are essentially unhealthy implications that will challenge the smooth existence of the mankind.
Source: www.igbp.net
No wonder the adverse unprecedented effects of such changes in global context are readily reflected in the Sri Lankan situation too where the social and climatic patterns were depicted rapid negative changes within several decades.
Earth Overshoot Day (EOD)
Source: https://www.overshootday.org
Earth Overshoot Day (or Ecological Debt Day - EDD), is the estimated illustrative calendar date on which resource consumption of humankind for the year exceeds earth’s capacity to regenerate those resources that year. For the rest of the year, we are maintaining our ecological deficit by drawing down local resource stocks that is owned by our posterity. In fact, what we are now doing is, just using the resources that would have been untouched and safely reserved for the unborn generations.
Way Forward - Survival of Mankind
Human nation seriously needs a way out from the disastrous continuation of the series of its own ill actions that manipulated the nature unfavorably. It is well understood through the concept of earth overshoot day. If the human world continued to go on ‘business as usual’ the rate of consumption of resources will be twice as of the rate of generation of resources by 2030. This simply means we need two worlds of resources in another twelve years!
We can comfortably afford to have a cunning blind eye on our own over utilization of earth resources only because the unborn generation cannot point the finger to us and claim their ownership. This situation demands an immediate change. Extraordinary times calls for extraordinary measures. Its high time for us to have a wise pause & think about going for a radical change.
The key challenge is to ensure the progress is inclusive and environmentally sustainable. In order to constraint the existence of mankind within safe operating limits the only alternative is SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.
Sustainable Development
Sustainable Development is the ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own need’. – General Assembly of UN, 1987, p. 43
It’s the mean doctrine that ensures the long-standing development of the human world. In other words, it’s a balancing act that offer the due honor to the limits as the mankind continues to improve its well-being.
The balance between the three pillars, namely the economic development, social development and environmental protection is the key of achieving sustainability.As there is an interdependence between the three pillars of sustainability, none of thosecan exist without the other sin the long run.
Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs)
Since sustainability is a call of action, in order to implement it effectively in the global context a political process is needed. To do this some set out common goals and values are to be established and following up to be carryout.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (or Global Goals for Sustainable Development) are a collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015.The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets which has been set demonstrate the scale and ambition of this new universal agenda towards a greener plant with social and economic prosperity.
The below is the Sri Lanka’s official website to pursue how the country will progress with the SDGs. This is maintained by the Department of Census and Statistics.
The potential of the engineering community to lead the world towards sustainability is immense. Thus, being one of the key contributors to the development of the mankind and in the meantime being key accountable parties to the resultant destruction to the eco system too, engineers have a great responsibility to lead the nations towards a long lasting sustainable development. It’s our duty today!
(Chairman, Building Services Engineering Sectional Committee)
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