Sustainable Development in North America

The movement or effort known as sustainability or sustainable development fights an uphill battle against forces of rising population, cheap natural products, and opposing values. Robert C. Paechlke defines sustainability as maintaining the capacity of nature to support human well-being over the long term. He does argue though that the definition of “well-being” is subjective and depends on the actual quality of life of which you aspire. Sustainability can also focus not on pushing a system to its limits but attempting to minimize the amount of impact from the perspective of the consumer.

How could sustainability be accomplished?

Public Policy

In the realm of governmental intervention, public policy initiatives such as ecotaxation which could increase taxes on raw materials and lower taxes on income, is a strategy to move towards sustainable practices. Allowing public policy to be influenced by alternative measurements of national growth and prosperity rather than economism which is a number centric analysis has the opportunity to allow environmental and social values into the decision-making process.

Cities and Settlements

For cities to provide the framework needed to support sustainable lifestyles there are a number of ways that they could be restructured. Paehlke cites studies that promote the concept that increasing density will allow for more mobility options. Many cities in North America are designed around a street network that moves vehicles as efficiently as possible but limit the effectiveness of other options such as mass transit, biking, and walking. Density would preserve more land on the periphery of the city, use less energy to move people and products from place to place, and provide the opportunity necessary for overall carbon emission reduction. Buildings need to be designed to last for centuries instead of the short 50 year lifespan of typical resource hungry structures. Sustainability acknowledges that resources are required for city life but smart planning is required to limit time spent dipping into the honey jar.

Personal Action

Paehlke said “In the end, however, sustainability is inevitably the result of thousands of collective and personal decisions.” This point is perhaps the most important one of them all because it illustrates the place from which real progress begins. People may feel apathetic about personal responsibility but in the end it is the combined efforts made by millions of people acting individually that bring about real change.   

Rob Hopkins was featured on the TED talks where he spoke about his personal involvement in sustainability. He has been engaged in teaching people practical skills for sustainability like growing their own food, how to build buildings using local materials, and generating their own energy. He realized that the lifestyle of consumption and our love affair with oil will need to be replaced by sustainable practices. “By loving and leaving oil and all the oil age has done for us we are able to then begin the creation of a world which is more resilient, more nourishing, in which we find ourselves fitter, more skilled, and more connected to each other”.