TABLE 24-2 National Goal Towards Sustainable Development

GOAL1:HEALTHANDTHEENVIRONMENT
Ensure that every person enjoys the benefits of clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment at home, at work, and at
play.
GOAL2:ECONOMICPROSPERITY
Sustain a healthy U.S. economy that grows sufficiently to create meaningful jobs, reduce poverty, and provide the opportunity for a high quality of life for all in an increasingly competitive world.
GOAL3:EQUITY
Ensure that all Americans are afforded justice and have the opportunity to achieve economic, environmental, and social wellbeing.
GOAL4:CONSERVATIONOFNATURE
Use, conserve, protect, and restore natural resources land, air, water, and biodiversity in ways that help ensure long-term
social, economic, and environmental benefits for ourselves and future generations.
GOAL5:STEWARDSHIP
Create a widely held ethic of stewardship that strongly encourages individuals, institutions, and corporations to take full responsibility for the economic, environmental, and social consequences of their actions.
GOAL6:SUSTAINABLECOMMUNITIES
Encourage people to work together to create healthy communities where natural and historic resources are preserved, jobs are
available, sprawl is contained, neighborhoods are secure, education is lifelong, transportation and health care are accessible,
and all citizens have opportunities to improve the quality of their lives.
GOAL7:CIVICENGAGEMENT
Create full opportunity for citizens, businesses, and communities to participate in and influence the natural resource, environmental, and economic decisions that affect them.
GOAL8:POPULATION
Move toward stabilization of U.S. population.
GOAL9:INTERNATIONALRESPONSIBILITY
Take a leadership role in the development and implementation of global sustainable development policies, standards of conduct, and trade and foreign policies that further the achievement of sustainability.
GOAL10:EDUCATION
Ensure that all Americans have equal access to education and lifelong learning opportunities that will prepare them for meaningful work, a high quality of life, and an understanding of the concepts involved in sustainable development.
Table 23-1 Principal Health and Productivity Consequences of Environmental Mismanagement
Environmenta
Problem

Effect on Health

Water Pollution and More than 2 million deaths and billions of illnesses a
water scarcity
year are attributable to pollution; poor household
hygiene and added health risks are caused by water
scarcity.

Effect on Productivity
Declining fisheries, rural household time (time
spent fetching water) and municipal costs of providing safe water, depletion of aquifers, leading to
irreversible compaction, constraint on economic
activity because of water shortages.

Air Pollution

Many acute and chronic health impacts are responsi- Restrictions on vehicles and industrial activity
ble for 300,000-700,000 premature deaths annually during critical episodes, effect of acid rain on forand for half of childhood chronic coughing, 400 mil- ests, bodies of water and human artifacts.
lion-700 million people, mainly women and children
in poor rural areas are affected by smoky air.

Solid and Hazardous wastes

Diseases spread by rotting garbage and blocked Pollution of groundwater resources.

drains. Risks from hazardous wastes are typically
local but often acute.

Soil degradation

Reduced nutrition for poor farmers on depleted soils, Field productivity losses in the range of 0.5-1.5%
greater susceptibility to drought.
of gross national product are common on tropical
soils, offsite siltation of reservoirs, river-transport
channels, and other hydrologic systems.

Deforestation

Localized flooding, leading to death and disease.;

Loss of biodiversity Potential loss of new drugs.

Atmospheric
changes

Loss of sustainable logging potential and of erosion prevention, watershed stability, and carbon
storage by forests. Loss of nontimber forest products.
Reduction of ecosystem adaptability and loss of
genetic resources.

Possible shifts in vector-born diseases, risks from Sea-rise damage to coastal investments, regional
climatic natural disasters, diseases attributable to changes in agricultural productivity disruption of
ozone depletion (300,0000 more skin cancers per marine food chain.
year. 1.7 cases of cataracts per year)

Benefits-Mat May Be Gained by Reduction and Prevention of Pollution

1.

Improved human health

Reduction and prevention of pollution-related illnesses
Reduction of worker stress caused by pollution
Increased worker productivity

2. Improved agriculture and forest production

Reduction of pollution-related damage
More vigorous growth by removal of stress due to pollution
Higher farm profits, benefiting all agriculture-related industries
3. Enhanced commercial and/or sportfishing Increased value of fish and shellfish harvest
Increased sales of boats, motors, tackle, and bait
Enhancement of businesses serving fishermen
4. Enhancement of recreational opportunities'
Direct uses such as swimming and boating
Indirect uses such as observing wildlife
Enhancement of businesses serving vacationers
5. Extended lifetime of materials and less cleaning necessary
Reduction of corrosive effects of pollution, extending the lifetime of metals, textiles, rubber, paint, and other
coatings
Reduction of cleaning costs
Enhancement,of real estate values

Figure 23-3
Environmental economic
view of economic activity.
The natural environment encompasses the economy,
which is constrained by the
resources found within the
environment.

Heat
energy