6.2.1 Overview
Completion requirements
6.2.1 How Do We View the Environment?
How does globalization affect the environment?
The world we want: What does it look like? Is it a natural world where people can enjoy the wilderness and live in harmony with their surroundings? Or is it an urban, industrial landscape in which all natural resources are used to produce goods strictly for human use? In a world of continuous economic growth, the natural world must change. In a world of global economic growth, those changes are enormous.
Worldview and the role of humankind: The kind of world we want depends to an extent on our worldview and our beliefs about where humans fit into that world. Is humankind just one of the many unique and wonderful organisms that make up our universe, or are humans set apart and above the remainder of nature? Some people believe that the earth exists to serve humans. Others believe that people should be stewards of the land.
No matter what your worldview, the question of environmental sustainability remains.
Stewardship and sustainability: Environmental sustainability means meeting our present needs without compromising our future. The earth and its resources are finite-that means that oil is not growing, for example. It means that, if we want the human race to survive, we must ensure that the people of today do not deplete or destroy all those resources future generations need to prosper.
Many people believe that we must act as stewards of the land. Stewardship means taking good care of the resources that have been entrusted to us. Stewardship is the idea that all living things have a right to exist and that people should understand the natural world and encourage and maintain natural areas and biological diversity for future generations.
Worldview and the role of humankind: The kind of world we want depends to an extent on our worldview and our beliefs about where humans fit into that world. Is humankind just one of the many unique and wonderful organisms that make up our universe, or are humans set apart and above the remainder of nature? Some people believe that the earth exists to serve humans. Others believe that people should be stewards of the land.
No matter what your worldview, the question of environmental sustainability remains.
Stewardship and sustainability: Environmental sustainability means meeting our present needs without compromising our future. The earth and its resources are finite-that means that oil is not growing, for example. It means that, if we want the human race to survive, we must ensure that the people of today do not deplete or destroy all those resources future generations need to prosper.
Many people believe that we must act as stewards of the land. Stewardship means taking good care of the resources that have been entrusted to us. Stewardship is the idea that all living things have a right to exist and that people should understand the natural world and encourage and maintain natural areas and biological diversity for future generations.
Athabasca oil sands
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Source: Wikimedia Commons
| The central problem of sustainability is whether the human life support system on earth can continue indefinitely or whether it is changing the world in radical ways that will fail. In nature, there are no examples of indefinite physical growth — whether humankind can transform its economic growth system into a sustainable approach is presently unknown and a matter of considerable debate. from Sustainability, Wikipedia, August 16, 2006 |