Sustainable development | Ecology & Environment | Biology | FuseSchool
Channel: FuseSchool - Global Education
Date: 2018-01-11

Like all living organisms, humans need resources to live. We need food, clean water and a shelter to live in. A few thousand years ago, this is all we would have wanted - a full stomach and a warm, dry home. 

But, as the human race has developed we now have a need for other, more luxury items - maybe a bicycle or car to get us from a to b, electricity, even the internet. And all these things require resources, lots and lots of resources such as fossil fuels and metals. Many of these resources are limited - once all the fossil fuels have been extracted from the Earth and burned to provide us with fuels and electricity, there will be none left. 

How will future generations of humans cope without the things we take for granted? And that’s before we even consider the effect the burning of fossil fuels is having on our planet and the climate… future generations will also have to deal with the effects of that too.

Sustainable development involves making sure that there will be resources left for future generations. One way is to use renewable resources, such as solar energy, wind and biogas, to generate electricity rather than fossil fuels.Another example is using quick growing trees, like pine, as a source of wood. 

These trees can be cut down and replanted, providing an ever-ready supply. This is more sustainable than using slow growing trees like oak, which take hundreds of years to reach maturity.

Recycling plastics, metals and paper means that fewer resources need to be extracted from the earth, as we can reuse the already extracted products, meaning more resources for future generations.

As the human population grows, so does the demand for food. There is limited farmland, soil fertility, water and fish-stocks. So we should also be using sustainable ways of growing, catching and farming food.

We remove more than 77 billion kilograms of fish from the oceans each year! Unsurprisingly, the number of some species of fish in the wild are declining because of overfishing: we’re taking fish from the sea faster than populations can reproduce. Some species of fish are endangered because of this, and might go extinct if their populations continue to fall. 

There are several initiatives that have been introduced to help conserve fish populations and allow us to enjoy eating fish now and in the future.

Fishing quotas are strict numbers of fish that limit the amount of fish that people can catch. This reduces the amount of fish being taken from the sea.

The holes on fishing nets have to be large enough to let the smaller, younger fish escape. This then gives them the chance to reproduce, and help maintain the population. Another solution is fish farms. Eating farmed fish reduces the number of fish being caught from the wild.

It is important to realise that these initiatives have an impact on the people who rely on fishing for their income. Fishing quotas have helped to increase fish populations, but there has to be a balance between sustainable development for future generations and making sure that people today are also provided for.

So, in this video we have covered what sustainable development is and some examples including how to solve the problem of overfishing.




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