Introduction to Sustainability
Introduced| English | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Sustainability/səˌsteɪnəˈbɪlɪti/ | The ability to maintain an activity over time without exhausting the resources or conditions it depends on. |
| sustainable yield/səˈsteɪnəbl jiːld/ | The amount you can harvest without shrinking the resource. |
| Renewable/rɪˈnjuːəbl/ | Describing a resource that can be replenished naturally on a timescale relevant to its use. |
Living so it can last
- Many of the impacts we have seen come from using resources too fast.
- The opposite way of living is to use them so they never run out.
- That is the idea at the heart of environmental science.
- It is called sustainability.
What sustainability means
- Sustainability 可持续性 means using resources in a way that can continue indefinitely.
- It meets today's needs without spoiling the future.
- The classic definition: meet the needs of the present without preventing future generations from meeting theirs.
- In short, do not use up what tomorrow will need.
Wind turbines on farmland: sustainable resource use meets present needs without locking out future generations
Sustainability means using resources in a way that…
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Sustainability means meeting today's needs without preventing future generations from meeting theirs.
Sustainable yield
- A sustainable yield 可持续产量 is the amount you can harvest without shrinking the resource.
- Catch only as many fish as breed each year, and the stock never runs out.
- Cut only as many trees as regrow, and the forest lasts forever.
- Take more than that, and the resource slowly disappears.
A sustainable yield is the amount you can harvest…
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A sustainable yield takes only as much as the resource can naturally replace, so it lasts.
Resources like sunlight and wind that never run out are called ____.
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Renewable resources replenish naturally, making them the basis of sustainable living.
Renewable is the key
- Renewable 可再生 resources — sunlight, wind, growing plants — replenish naturally.
- Building life around them is the basis of sustainability.
- Non-renewable resources, like fossil fuels, cannot be used sustainably forever.
- A sustainable society lives mostly on what nature keeps renewing.
Sustainable or not?
Sort each practice by whether it can continue indefinitely without depleting resources.
Sustainability considers the needs of future generations, not just today.
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Sustainability means living so that future generations still have the resources they need.
Select all true statements about sustainability.
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Using resources as fast as possible is the opposite of sustainability. The other three are correct.
Sustainability is about the future, not just the present. A practice might seem fine today yet be unsustainable — like pumping groundwater that took thousands of years to collect. Always ask: could this continue forever? If not, it is not sustainable, no matter how well it works right now.
A sustainable fishery:
- Scientists work out how fast a fish population reproduces.
- Fishers are allowed to catch only that much each year — the sustainable yield.
- The stock stays healthy year after year, providing food indefinitely — the opposite of overfishing.
Sustainability means using resources so that they can continue indefinitely, meeting today's needs without spoiling the future. A sustainable yield harvests only what a resource can naturally replace. Renewable resources, which nature keeps refilling, are the foundation of sustainable living.