Why is sustainable development important?

1. What is sustainable development?

There are three, interrelated systems to consider when making sustainable development choices:
- the environmental
- the social
- the economic

Sustainable development rests on the premise that humans are part of various communities of organisms which make up a network of natural systems. Changes to the way that we relate to the environment influence the ways that we relate to each other. Changes to the way that we relate to each other influence our environment.

2. What are the benefits of sustainable development?

- continued biodiversity
- continued or improved biome resiliency
- stronger communities
- more equitable rights and responsibilities
- people empowered to meet their own needs
- thriving local and global economies

3. Other considerations:

We don't fully know what our human impact is on systems (such as the water cycle).

We cannot fully imagine how the needs of future human communities will differ from ours.

Policies are not sufficient to bring about the type of change needed because of the way that humans are “programmed” to think. (in time scales and consequences)

There are complex issues related to health and how massive numbers of unhealthy people, animals, or systems influence the whole.

4. Critique

That sustainable development maintains a technocratic view of the environment: that appropriate technology and science are sufficient to solve all of our problems, that continued “growth” is possible, and that it is appropriate to treat both nodes (e.g. organisms, minerals) and processes in living systems as resources to be managed.

That actions taken in the name of “sustainable development” are sometimes taken without public consent, in order to oppress “lesser developed” communities, or are only condoned because they affirm the continued ethic of “private property”.