Sustainable Development and the Environment
The core idea
Sustainable development meets present needs without preventing future generations from meeting theirs. It rests on three pillars - economic, social and environmental - and all three must hold. Know: carrying capacity, renewable and non-renewable resources, common-pool resources and the tragedy of the commons, externalities (costs borne by others, such as pollution), point-source and non-point-source pollution, deforestation, desertification, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, climate change, waste and water scarcity.
Tools and principles
Instruments include environmental impact assessment (EIA) before major projects, environmental management plans, licences and standards, the polluter-pays principle, the precautionary principle, user fees, quotas, protected areas, community-based natural resource management through community trusts, recycling, and international agreements including the Sustainable Development Goals. Distinguish mitigation (reducing the causes of climate change) from adaptation (adjusting to its effects).
Traps
Sustainability is not only about wildlife: a project that protects trees while displacing a community fails the social pillar. Renewable does not mean inexhaustible - a fishery renews only while the harvest stays below the regeneration rate. An EIA completed after approval is not an EIA. Do not confuse conservation (careful use) with preservation (no use).
Rule of thumb
Run the three-pillar checklist on any project: what does it add economically; who gains, who is displaced or harmed socially; what does it take from the environment and can that be regenerated? For a non-renewable resource, ask what is being built to replace it once it is exhausted.