In many ways, ‘sustainability’ is the buzz word for a new millennium. As our stocks of finite resources run dangerously low, levels of production and consumption become ever higher. And while trends show that we are making the effort to live greener lives, the problem of pollution has not gone away, with the UK dumping more household waste into landfill than any other EU country. Will our environmental legacy survive? This book explores the issues involved.
The information comes from a wide range of sources and includes government reports and statistics, newspaper reports, features, magazine articles and surveys, literature from lobby groups and charitable organisations.
Chapter One: Defining Sustainability
Environmental sustainability, Fast facts: environmental sustainability, What is sustainable development?, The UK’s ecological debt, Sustainable consumption and production, Securing the future, What are natural resources?, Ecological Footprint, Sustainable construction.
Chapter Two: Sustainability Challenges
Population, poverty and the environment, The water crisis, 2.6 billion wait in line for toilets, Plumbing beats penicillin, Environmental migration, Urban growth and sustainable use of space, Sustaining life on earth, Your natural heritage: why it matters, Contaminated land, Britain: the ‘dustbin of Europe’, Intrusion, Agricultural land use, What is organic?, Return of GM, GM food: the solutions, Fisheries, Better buys: what fish can I eat?, Forests, Conservation, EU: top global importer of wildlife, Air pollution, Pollution putting groundwater supplies at risk, warns agency, Why monitor air pollution, Can shopping save the planet?
Key Facts
Glossary
Index
Additional Resources
Acknowledgements
Key Facts
• Population growth, along with high resource consumption by affluent populations, is contributing to increasing stress on the global environment. (page 2)
• The increasing stress we put on resources and environmental systems such as water, land and air cannot go on for ever. Especially as the world’s population continues to increase and we already see a world where over a billion people live on less than a dollar a day. (page 3)
• Today we live in both a carbon constrained and water constrained world. Pressures on the environment are increasing as world population grows and parts of society become wealthier. The planet’s renewable resources – like water, timber or fish – are rapidly being exhausted. (page 7)
• Sustainability is a simple idea. It is based on the recognition that when resources are consumed faster than they are produced or renewed, the resource is depleted and eventually used up. (page 10)
• The largest population increases and the most fragile environmental conditions are usually found in poor countries, which typically have limited financial means and least adequate political and managerial resources to address the challenges. (page 12)
• New figures show that Britain is officially the ‘dustbin of Europe’ as it dumps more household waste into landfill than any other country in the European Union. (page 23)
• With only 8 per cent of the world’s ancient forests currently under strict protection, huge areas are still at risk from destructive logging. (page 31)
• The European Union tops the list for major importer of many wild animal and plant products, including tropical timber, caviar, reptile skins and live reptiles. (page 34)
• The major threat to clean air is now posed by traffic emissions. (page 35)
Sustainability and Environment Study Guide
Each book in the Issues series has a study guide. These four-page guides provide a variety of discussion points and other activities to suit a wide range of ability levels and interests.
Publisher: Independence Educational Publishers
Price: £1.50
ISBN: 978 1 86168 445 5 |
