John Connolly CAS 137H Benjamin Henderson 10-30-12 Sustainability

I was fourteen years old when I was first introduced to the concept of sustainability. I was listening to Al Gore give his Nobel Lecture after winning the Peace Prize in 2007 for his work advocating awareness for Global Warming. My introduction occurred so subtly that it took years to realize that the beginning of my trip down the path of sustainability began with Gores long winded, but impressive speech. I remember listening to him and thinking about how my actions were affecting Global Warming, but what I didnt realize was that he was speaking to a deeper level by saying that if we didnt begin to practice sustainability, global warming would be only one of the many consequences of our negligence. A slow increase in sustainability awareness has been occurring with society across the last few decades, however the largest observed societal shift has been toward the end of this time period (2000 present). It is during this time that we have seen the largest change in technology, the economy, our personal lives and even some of our core values all centered around the need for a sustainable future.

What Is Sustainability?
The Oxford English Dictionary states that sustainability is The degree to which a process or enterprise is able to be maintained or continued while avoiding the long-term depletion of natural resources (Sustainability). However there is much more to sustainability than simply maintaining natural resources. This was one of the problems that the United Nations World Commission on

John Connolly CAS 137H Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission) combatted as they

developed their guidelines toward more specific sustainability definitions and goals. They needed to discover how sustainability could be described so that it could be understood and practiced in all parts of the world. After weeks of consultation they concluded their meetings with the publication of the 383-page report entitled Our Common Future (Brundtland Report) (1987), which described sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their own needs, (Our Common Future). If we analyze these definitions of sustainability they begin to sound very similar to the late 19th century American forester Gifford Pinchots description of conservation. Gifford said that conservation emphasizes using natural resources wisely, not depleting nonrenewable resources, ensuring that all American men received a fair share of the distribution of benefits, and that consideration be given to the needs of their descendants (McManus). With this description of conservation we can see that sustainability and conservation are linked throughout time, which allows for the location of the origin of sustainability and the exploration of sustainability history.

Beginning of Sustainability
One of the first recorded uses of the word conservation (in the context of sustainability) is in John Stows Annales: Chronical of England (1580) (Conservation). He writes It was ordained by Parliament, the Maior of London to

John Connolly CAS 137H

have conservation of the river of Thamis, from the bridge of Stanes, unto the Waters of Yendale, and Medway (Stow). We see the term used again a few hundred years later as President Theodore Roosevelt undertakes an enormous effort to conserve massive amounts of land across the United States. He writes Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations through a democratic spirit of conservation and preservation (Roosevelt) From Roosevelts era (1900s) to the 1970s, conservation was the term used to describe sustainability. However, that all changed when the World Conservation Strategy (WCS) was put into place. The WCS linked the terms conservation and sustainability for the first time and brought the supporters of conservation to sustainability (World Conservation Strategy). After seventeen years of unsuccessful sustainability awareness, the Brundtland commission published Our Common Future and set up a chain of events that would lead directly to todays societal shift.

The Years Prior to Societal Shift

The most notable events that occurred in the years leading up to the Societal Shift were the Conferences in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, New York City in 1997, and Johannesburg in 2002. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro (which later became known as the Earth Summit) was a five year check up meeting on the completion of the Brundtland commission. It was at this meeting that the United Nations measured adequate success and began the process of introducing more funding to turn ideas into action.

John Connolly CAS 137H The two subsequent meetings in New York and Johannesburg continued to determine and implement actions which would support the sustainability movement. It was decided during the last meeting in Johannesburg that the following decade, beginning in 2005, would be considered the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, and the development and societal shift that have so far occurred during this time show the name is extremely accurate. (Dunavan)

Causes of the Societal Shift

The recent changes in our world are the largest causes of the current shift in sustainability. The realization that the irregular climate patterns we are experiencing could be caused by our destruction of the environment is forcing us to change. Everyday, facts about how many trees are being cut down, how large your carbon footprint is, and how much ozone is in the air are being thrown at the typical human being. We see this and conclude that we need to change and become more sustainable or face the threat of permanently altering our climate. The other change is the realization that all material things on this Earth will eventually run out. Our greedy consumption of oil and non-renewable resources has become an addiction and we are beginning to see that there is not an infinite amount to secure our future. Because of this we are learning to find more sustainable solutions to these energy and non-renewable resource problems before time runs out. The overall cause of the shift, however, is that the world is feeling guilty. We have finally come to the conclusion that we have been given a large responsibility and

John Connolly CAS 137H we havent taken care of it. We have mishandled it, which has created a situation that

could end in catastrophe. But we understand now, and our feeling of guilt has changed into a sense of renewed responsibility. Not a responsibility for the environment, but for our actions that have put us here. We have decided that we will work as hard as we can to fix the mistakes we have made in order to be more adequately prepared to handle the maintenance of this world.

Effects of the Societal Shift

Technological Advances: Major advances in almost every field of sustainable technology have been recorded since 2005. This list includes energy efficiency, biofuels, hybrid electric vehicles, recycling, and renewable resources. (Dunavan) Economic Changes: Beginning in the late 1980s and becoming more prominent in the 1990s was a trend for companies to engage in Social Responsibility. Social Responsibility is the recognition that a sustainable economy must respect the capacity of the ecosystem on which it depends both for material resources and recycling of waste materials. Not only has this been shown to improve the sustainability of companies, but it also has affected marketing campaigns of different companies who are now advertising their sustainability as a new way of attracting potential customers. Personal Impact: Home life has changed as well. There are resources everywhere that are overflowing with information, just waiting to be used by the world. Phrases like carbon footprint, carbon neutral, and sustainable have become a buzz-words in communities and the effect of these phrases has caught on.

John Connolly CAS 137H Areas are trying to promote their new levels of sustainability and these promotions are beginning to have significant impacts on the world at large. The largest effect is general awareness and a new sense of responsibility toward the environment and the future generations of the world. It is almost

impossible to find someone who doesnt know about global warming. Whether they believe it to be true or not, they have some sense that they need to do as much as they can to protect the environment. It is this effect that will inspire the world to continue shifting their ideas and values to help clean up the earth and eventually provide a healthy planet for the generations to come.

John Connolly CAS 137H

Word Cited "Conservation, n.". OED Online. September 2012. Oxford University Press. 25 October 2012 <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/39564?redirectedFrom=Conservation>. Dunavan, Sandra L. "Sustainability." Climate Change: In Context. Ed. Brenda Wilmoth Lerner and K. Lee Lerner. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2008. 828-831. In Context Series. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. McManus, Phil. "Sustainability." Encyclopedia of Global Warming and Climate Change. Ed. S. George Philander. Vol. 3. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2008. 939-941. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. Our common future. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. Print. Roosevelt, Theodore. A book-lover's holidays in the open,. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1916. Print. Stow, John. The annales of England. Imprinted at London: [By Peter Short, Felix Kingston, and George Eld] for George Bishop, and Thomas Adams, 1605. Print. "Sustainability, n.". OED Online. September 2012. Oxford University Press. 24 October 2012 <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/299890>. World conservation strategy: living resource conservation for sustainable development. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN, 1980. Print.