Sustainable Development

Running head: SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 1
Sustainable Development
Name
Institutional Affiliation

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 2
Sustainable Development
How many planets worth of natural capital do we require for everyone to live like you?
I just discovered that if everyone lived like me we would need 3.6 earths. My total
ecological footprint is at 61% (Footprint calculator, n.d.).
Were you surprised with your results?
Yes I was shocked to learn that I have a high carbon footprint and I have not been active
or careful to take appropriate actions that contribute towards a sustainable planet earth.
What are four actions that you could take to reduce your footprint?
First of all I would do my best to minimize the amount of waste coming from my
household to the landfills. In addition I would encourage my neighbors to practice composting.
We could set up a compost area or link up with nearby farmers and dispose our waste foods in
their compost pits. This ensures a complete cycle of food from the soil after which the waste
returns to the soil as rich compost manure high in plant nutrients (Gerbens-Leenes, Hoekstra &
van der Meer, 2009).
Secondly, I would reduce my carbon footprint through my means of transport. One of the
ways I can do this is make use of carpool often for instance by asking my neighbors or friends
that we work with in the same location to use my car or one vehicle to and from work. Also, I
ought to use public means of transport more frequently especially the trains as this reduces
overall carbon emissions.
Besides I think it would be high time I reduced my magazine subscriptions. I love to
stock books, novels and magazines in my small library but for sustainability purposes I need to

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 3
do more online reading, borrow books when I can and acquire hard copies only if I have to and
when there is no other option. On that note, for the sake of our planet earth, my current and
future generation, am obliged to recycle paper and plastic as much as possible.
Last but not least, I would reduce the number of times I replace my electronic gadgets
especially phones, TVs and laptops which I replace quite a number of times particularly when
outdated. When released in to landfills, these devices release harmful toxins such as lead,
bromine and mercury that leak into the water underground and interfere with food chain causing
serious damage to soil, water, crops, animals and humans (Giljum, Bruckner & Martinez, 2015).
With use of an example for each, define and differentiate strong and weak sustainability.
Weak sustainability means that human capital or labor can replace natural capital that is
natural resources such as clean water, geology and fertile soils. It insinuates that it is okay to
consume all natural resources so long as the natural capital has been converted into manufactured
goods or capital of equal monetary value (Enders & Remig, 2015). An example is extreme
mining of a non-renewable resource or mineral such as oil. The money acquired from selling
such resources could benefit a national economy in many ways. However, in case of a financial
crisis, that income could be wiped out while depletion of oil wells and environmental
degradation related to it could also have irreversible effects. What weak sustainability does not
factor in is that it is hard to place monetary value on natural resources and services as compared
to manufactured capital which is quite easy (Huiqin & Linchun, 2011). Besides, it ignores the
fact that some natural capital are impossible to substitute with manufactured goods for instance
ozone layer.