Before our generation
started, our ancestors experienced what we call a sustainable environment. They
experienced clean waters from lakes, a suitable air for breathing, and a
surrounding with less waste than we could imagine. Sustainability has been the
key for this kind of surrounding. Now, what is sustainability?
The ability of an ecosystem
to function and maintain productivity for a prolonged period is what we call
sustainability. As a human being, we are truly dependent on our environment for
us to survive. Almost everything that we need comes from natural resources.
Often times, it is a mistake for a human being to view that the natural
resources from the environment are valuable only if they are useful to humans.
It means that when we think that one of the natural resources is not
significant for living, there is a tendency that humans will waste those
resources, thus we are going to have a degraded ecosystem and a diminishing
biodiversity.
Sustainability is the
capacity to continue to exist. If something is not sustainable, it will cease
to exist. For example, a community can be considered as sustainable if whatever
resources it consumes should be no more than into what it produces. This is
because sustainability is a balance between supply and demand, between what is
produced and consumed. A sustainable population ensures that the population of
all other species who share the land where they live is also sustained. A
population that causes the extinction of another species is not sustainable. It
means that human population and the population of the natural resources are
dependent on each other so they need to take care of each other and assure the
preservation of each.
Some of us think that by
being a student we only have limited ways to contribute to sustainability. We
can have different and plenty of ways to contribute for the sustainability of
our environment. We know that production of sustenance is difficult for large
population because of the climate change and increased levels of pollution. It
worsens environmental conditions.
As a student, I can prevent
the worsening of pollution by joining different activities specifically tree
planting. It is clearly obvious that we lack trees especially in the rural
areas. Flooding destroys the environment and the natural resources that we
need. Just as what I mentioned, we can achieve sustainability by having a
balance between supply and demand. Aside from this, we also need to decrease
the amount of waste produced so as not to exceed the waste absorption capacity
of the environment.
As a student, we can
decrease the amount of waste by recycling. It is the process of separating,
collecting, and remanufacturing or converting used or waste products, it
reduces pollution and helps mitigate global warming, and more importantly, it
saves our planet Earth. A population’s ability to sustain itself is not
dependent on the number of people, but the relationship between the people and
the land they live on. If the people exploit the land, taking more from it than
they give in return, then regardless on the number of people, they will soon
reach a point where the land no longer sustains them.
As a student, I can
contribute to sustainability by thinking and restoring into my mind that there
is no unlimited consumption of resources. I will make others realize that
resources are finite and will run out at present rates of consumption.
Sustainability is important
because all the choices and actions that we do today will affect everything in
the future. The lives of the future generations will count on us so that there
would be enough natural resources for them. Let me end by stating a quote from
Frank Buchman, “There is enough in the world for everyone’s need, but not
enough for everyone’s greed”. It means that even as a student, we should be
responsible enough in handling and maintaining sustainability.
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