Environmental Politics and Policy

This essay discusses the concept of weak and strong sustainability, approaches to address and resolve environmental issues, and the role of society in environmental sustainability.

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7/30/2018

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Introduction
The concept of weak and strong sustainability rotates around the issues of
sustainability as both technical and ethical considerations. Weak sustainability considers that
both natural and manmade capitals are essentially substitutable while the strong sustainability
assumes that the natural resources can be treated as infinite stock of resources. However, it
cannot be denied that the economic growth brings pollution and destruction of natural
resources that have an adverse effect on the human beings as well as other species of the
Earth (Mihelcic, Zimmerman, & Auer, 2014). Reduction in the destruction of natural
resources needs strong governance and environmental policy by the top leaders of every
country (especially from the developed country) that save our planet from future calamities.
However, the fundamental debate among peoples regarding the adoption of weak
sustainability or strong sustainability in the economic development to protect the natural
resource and avoid environmental issues (Both long-term and short-term issues).
Weak and Strong Sustainability
Weak sustainability considered that both natural and manmade capitals are essentially
substitutable and there is no crucial difference the kinds of well-being it generates. The
matter is the amount of input we used to generate output and which affect the adequacy level
of natural resources that we should ideally maintain for our future generation (Charter &
Tischner, 2017). According to weak sustainability perspective, it is assumed that the
technological development provides a technical solution to the environmental problems
caused by the maximum use of natural resources and excessive production of goods and
services (Dedeurwaerdere, 2014).
The strong sustainability assumes that the natural resources can be treated as infinite
stock of resources. In fact, numbers of researcher and economists favoured the concept of
strong sustainability that states human-made capitals are not perfect substitutes, but
complimentary of natural capital or resources (Pelenc, Ballet, & Dedeurwaerdere, 2015). The
strong sustainability accepts the there is no replacement of natural resources and there are
certain functions that are only performed by the environment and it cannot be duplicated by
the man-made capital. The protagonists of strong sustainability raise several causes to show
the non-substitutability of natural capital.

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The man-made capital can be reversible and reproduced but the natural capital could
not be reversible or reproducible and the destruction of natural capital is almost irreversible.
The human being has very less knowledge about the functioning of natural systems, thus we
are unaware about the adverse effect of destroying natural resources as we are doing it so fast
speed (Shah, Lee, McAllister, Hunter, Nair, Whiteley, & Mills, 2015). Since the man-made
capital involves natural capital for its production, instead it cannot be treated as a substitute
for natural resources (Bhamra & Lofthouse, 2016).
There are normally four types of contributions that are our environmental resources
provide us: security, services, and products for good life, health and maintain a good social
relation (Briassoulis, 2017). The ecosystem provides services through its natural capital
playing a significant role in ensuring the well-being of human life and helps in determining
the freedom of choice (Wilson & Wu, 2017). The excessive consumption of natural capital
would restrict the freedom of our future generations and they will have to face heave
challenges from the environment in form of polluted air, soil pollution, water pollution, flood,
unexpected weather change, earthquake etc. This problem raises the issue of intergenerational
justice issue (Barr, 2016).
Approaches to Address and Resolve of Environmental Issues
In order to address the environmental issues, it is necessary to approach this from a
systematic approach. Almost all the countries of the world are following economic system
(Capitalism system) and focusing on overall development by increasing the economic
growth, and it is absolutely against the ecosystem (De Mare, Granata, & Nesticò, 2015).
Almost all of the systems need to reimagine about the current economic system that destroys
the natural capital and dis-balance the stock of natural capital. Such a change in our
ecosystem disturbing and threatening to most of the people, but instead of being prepared we
will reactive and be scared (Mota, Gomes, Carvalho, & Barbosa-Povoa, 2015). The
increasing population of the world is directly linked with the environmental problem. The
needs of people are increasing day by day as well as the population is increasing. The
political and leadership power could have the deep effect on the population to approach these
changes with planned and sound scientific techniques. However, most of the leaders and
politician avoid the population issues, which are the major cause of almost all the
environmental issues.

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Role of society in environmental sustainability is a major concern. The people
continuously destroying the natural resources and never think about their future generation.
The government of every country must take strict action against those people who cut green
trees, wasting water and useless consumption of electricity etc. Regarding these
environmental issues, every government of the country should formulate a common rule and
regulation to protect the natural resources (Hák, Janoušková, & Moldan, 2016). It has been
seen that many rules and regulations are formalized by various countries but those are only
working on documents. Here, the role of good governance is important which should be
responsible for implementing those rules and regulations in reality. Most of the trees were cut
down by the people for their development and growth, but it adversely affects our
environment and which result in heavy air pollution and climate change. Here the
government can take strict action against these types of people and limit the use of natural
resources by strict environmental policies (Landrum, 2015). Other problems are water
scarcity and loss of biodiversity, which are major parts of our environment and have
significant effect to maintain the balance of our ecosystem.
The overall development of human beings needs the excessive production of
manufactured capital and in turn, it results in the mass destruction of natural resources and
capital adversely affect the life of human beings by dis-balance the ecosystem (Gibbs,
Longhurst, & Braithwaite, 1998). This excessive use and destruction of natural capital
generate a number of environmental issues and problems for human lives as well as for all the
species lives on the Earth. These issues are divided into two parts: short-term issues and long-
term issues.
Short-term issues (e.g. 10 years) and Solution
Air, Water, and Soil Pollution are the major example of short-term environmental
issues. These pollutions are closely linked with the climate change, especially air pollution.
The polluted air and greenhouse gases are two major problems of the current decade. Almost
entire world facing problems related to air pollution. China is a big example of where people
can see horrible images of air pollution. In China, most of the cities are almost covered by the
polluted smog in the winter. The other types of pollution i.e. water and soil pollution might
not get the attention of media that air pollution does, but these are also horrible for the human
health concern. Deforestation is another big problem because forests are the important part of
the environment that helps in to establish a balanced eco-system. The trees absorb CO2 that

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reduces the level of CO2 in our atmosphere, otherwise, it causes worsen global warming
(Wong & Zhou, 2015).
Many of the solutions to air pollution are applicable to other types of pollution as
well. The major cause behind the air pollution is the smog-emissions from vehicles and
factories. The government should ban these vehicles and only those vehicles on the road,
which has lower-emission of pollution-causing gases (Hellweg & i Canals, 2014). To reduce
the pollution it is necessary for people to switch over green energy, which is also essential for
the cut back on fossil fuel emission.
Long-term issues (e.g. 100 years) and Solution
The excessive use of natural capital for the production of manufactured capital results
in a heavy destruction of natural resources. The impact of destroying these natural capitals
has long terms impact on our environment and ecosystem (Sorrell, 2015). The greenhouse
gases continuously increase the temperature of the earth that causes the increased water level
in the oceans. This causes the flood in the cities, which are situated near the seas (Hussen,
2018). The pollution level day by day increasing and it causes less availability of oxygen in
the atmosphere that causes disease like cancer, tuberculosis, asthma etc. The politician and
leaders of the world should take initiatives to reduce the level of toxic gas emission in the
environment and ensure that the natural capital cannot be destroyed. The government should
also take decisions about deforestation and make strict laws against those people who cut
green trees for their personal interest.
Conclusion
Environmental issues and problems are the major challenges for the entire world. The
number of researchers talks about the weak and strong sustainability concept but the reality is
if we cannot care our nature, we will destroy the life of our future generations. Development
of the world needs the excessive production of manufactured capital and it requires the too
excessive use of natural resources. The mass destruction of resources always dangerous for
the survival of human beings as well as all the species who live on this planet. The politicians
and leaders of all the countries who can play a major part to protect our future from natural
calamities like earthquake, climate change, air pollution etc. need to take corrective and
precautionary measures against it.

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References
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