What is Sustainability

[Music] what is sustainability one of the more common definitions of sustainability used worldwide is from the u.n bruntland commission they say sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs so put simply sustainability is about our kids and our grandkids how do we live today so that they can thrive and future generations can also have a good life our planet has many resources that we depend on for food for housing and many of those resources can replenish you can cut down a tree and grow new trees you can catch fish and there will be more fish but that only works if you do it at a rate that these systems can replenish we call that the replacement rate you could think of it as a bathtub and you're draining the bathtub and filling the bathtub at the same rate and if you do that then the level of the water should be able to stay stable we call that equilibrium it's not that you're not using any resources you are but you're doing it at a rate that the systems are able to stay somewhat steady right now and over the past few decades what we're seeing is that we are consuming resources much faster than the replacement rate and the result of that draining the bathtub faster than filling it is that those levels are going down we're seeing fisheries disappearing and other ocean life we're seeing forests disappearing of course you know everyone is familiar with the impacts of climate change and you know other impacts of this level of consumption you know plastics in the ocean all of these problems so ultimately sustainability is about understanding how all of this is connected understanding that when you make a decision to buy a smartphone you are impacting someone's life on the other side of the planet who's involved in mining the materials to put in that smartphone so sustainability is about systems thinking one of the other big frameworks that we use to talk about sustainability is the three e's in business we call that the triple bottom line some people call it the three legs of the stool and that's environment economy and equity and it's not just about understanding that we need to manage all of those it's understanding how they're connected so if you only look at short-term economic profit then you're not going to end up with a thriving economy in the long term if you're only looking at conserving the environment without thinking about economics and understanding you know how people are making their livelihood you also may not end up with a thriving society and if you aren't looking at equity you're going to end up with a few people that have most of the resources and many people who are hungry and not living a good life and that's not really a successful human society either so sustainability is really about addressing all of those and understanding the connections between them you

Channel: UCLA

Views: 700,038

Keywords: UCLA

Id: zx04Kl8y4dE

Length: 3min 6sec (186 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 14 2021