What is Sustainability?
Sustainability has several definitions, depending upon the scenario to which it is being applied. At this time, most people associate the term with environmental issues. It is the name given to practices that will help to protect the future of the planet and stop the progress of climate change. The concept of sustainability aims to meet the present needs of the world without creating any lasting damage to the resources that future generations will require.
What it means is that we need to discover how to sustain our lifestyles over a very prolonged period of time. At this moment, the way that humans live is unsustainable and is already causing a great deal of damage.
Earth Overshoot Day
There is an event known as Earth Overshoot Day each year. This is the point when we have already consumed all the natural resources that we are able to produce in a year. If we were living a sustainable lifestyle, this date would be 31 December. However, in 2021, the planet reached this point on 29 July. This means that humans are consuming more than the planet is able to produce naturally.
To create a sustainable lifestyle, people need to find ways to consume less of the Earth’s natural resources. This includes things such as fossil fuels and reducing the number of trees that we cut down. It means we need to cut emissions and learn to reuse and recycle the items that we already have, abandoning the throwaway culture that we have developed in recent years. People are already doing this in a number of ways, and making the changes needed on an individual level is relatively easy.