What is sustainability?
The state of Florida will soon surpass the state of New York in population making us the third largest state in America.
It's not a question I had really worried or thought about. Now that I have to take a course on our environment I'm forced to really look at it and see if it's something that I should be worried about. I'd like to believe that I still have a whole life ahead of me and should look forward to seeing my grandchildren grow but now I'm not sure that is true. Not because I'm ill but because at the rate that we a nation are growing and our resources are dwindling.
That's kind of scary in a way. We've all seen movies on the hustle and bustle of New York and although I like to visit New York I don't want to live there. So, I wouldn't like to see Florida become that way. I have lived in Naples for 48 years and have seen the growth it has had. We had to drive about ten miles before we could get to a grocery store. Now that location is Naples on The Bay which has condominiums, restaurants and shopping stores. Even trying to find a convenience store was hard to find in which I believe was further than the grocery store. Now there are four convenience stores in my community and each one busy any given time. It's crazy how fast the area is growing. Not to say that we no longer have areas that aren't developed as there is still plenty of green around. But isn't that something that we want and need to keep around in order to stay environmentally friendly?
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| Photo by website The Real Naples |
“We understand that humans and nature are not separate, and so insustainability work the systems are known as social-ecological systems: linked systems of humans and nature (Walker and Salt 2012,1).”
If we are linked in some way then we need to learn to co-exist. It’s been this way forever as we as humans can’t live without nature. Nature can survive as it’s been here way before humans have but if we destroy that how will we be able to survive. Slowly we are doing away with rainforests, our air is being contaminated and our reefs in the ocean are dying. People including myself don’t really look at things like this as we believe it doesn’t affect us but we are obviously wrong. No nature means no carbon dioxide for us to be able to breath, no food to be cultivated, and no water for us to drink.
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| Photo by website theday.co.uk |
“The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race (Malthus [1798] 2008:61)”
A powerful quote, as aren’t we seeing that already in many of the third world countries. Little babies are dying due to starvation. There are too many people and not enough food. The land is dry therefore making it hard to cultivate it for food. Even here in America we have kids going around hungry. How can that be in a country that is so rich and with so many resources? Yes we are growing as a population but we also have to ensure that we keep the earth growing in order to avoid the premature death that we will be facing.
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| Photo by Alwaght.com |
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