Understanding Sustainability

Sustainability - \sə-ˈstā-nə-bəl\ - of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged. (Source: Merriam Webster 21st Century Dictionary)

When first reading about sustainability in this class I figured I knew all there was to know about it. I figured since I've done "change the world" projects back in middle school it would be basically the same. I thought this until I was informed about the many ways in which sustainability can exist. I was shown this through a picture on the syllabus.

How this Venn-diagram was described made me really think what a sustainable community actual is. When I was younger, I just thought being sustainable meant having no problems. I realize this isn't reality, as long as there are people on this planet, there will be problems. But I now understand sustainability is about coexisting with nature, resources, and each other. This is how I chose to interpret what I was told.

Social Justice- The Declaration of Human Rights, which was accepted by the United States in 1948, states "basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled.", which, in a nutshell, means every person is equal. Well if this was true, after WWII there wouldn't have been any discrimination against specific races, which to this day still exists. There wouldn't be separated social classes. We would be communists. Unfortunately this isn't how life works. In theory, at birth everyone has the same chances to become something. But what if your father leaves your family and your mother is a single parent? What if you have an income less than $30,000 a year? In the words of my freshmen English teacher, "it's like you start a race 100 meters behind everyone else."

Economic Justice- Through the years, economic inequality has become more and more apparent to the naked eye. The gap between rich and poor has broadened drastically. Millionaires in the 1800's were few and far between. Now-a-days when you turn on the TV you're bound to hear a millionaires rags-to-riches story and how you too can become rich and famous, when in reality, your chances of becoming one are, indeed, one in a million. What about the people living on the side of the streets begging for change? But what can we do? Will greed get the best of us? That seems to be the problem with humans, we never know when enough is enough. But is it inevitable? Is it in the blood of a human to want more? Something better. Something faster. Something to match our handbag.

Environmental Justice- "Hippies." Whenever we think of people who care about the environment, we label them "hippies." Is it wrong to love what we have? These people are the future. They understand if we don't do something about what's happening to this planet now, then sooner or later we'll be in the deep end. We use the planet's resources like we have surplus stock of it, which we do not. Some people have taken it upon themselves to find new ways of using the earth's resources, which will prolong the use of this planet. The main problem is we dump whatever we don't need into the earth, may it be landfill or into the air. Without knowing the consequences, we just throw a wrapper out the window and assume it will disappear. We'll it doesn't. It's still there, and when everyone in the world has this mentality, then something is bound to happen. It effects our resources, which directly effects us. Unless we do something, we'll soon have nothing, which is unsustainable.

Why is it that you spend more time in prison for kidnapping than murder? Why is it that the government is missing 25 billion dollars but there are still people going hungry? Why do we believe everything that's on the television? Why is it that we can destroy the environment as long as we get profit? It seems that no one will take the blame for the flaws in the world, but we sure can point fingers. The first thing everyone needs to do is recognize that there are problems with the way we are living. The second thing is to fix them. This won't take a day, or a week, or a month, or even a year. This will be a collective effort that will last until the problems seem to disappear. But how?