Sustainable development and climate change are the biggest challenges humanity would face after covid led disaster is over!
Sustainable development is the overarching paradigm of the United Nations. The concept of sustainable development was described by the 1987 Bruntland Commission Report as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Due to over-exploitation of resources, sustainable development has now become a global problem for humanity. If this problem is not resolved, challenges like climate change, poverty and Inequality have the potential to destroy the basic fabric of society and nature.
Owing to our rapidly growing population, in the future more resources will be needed in order to accommodate for it and, unfortunately, the resources that we take benefit of now are not all renewable. Sustainable development will be the biggest challenge due to the following reasons-
Climate change- According to IPCC latest report, the world has already become warmer by 1 degree Celsius. Extreme weather events like floods in European countries and Hurricanes in North America have started affecting humanity due to the rise. If sustainable development is not taken seriously, climate change up-to 3 degree Celsius rise might affect Food and climate security for the entire world.
Exploitation of resources- The industries are investing and relying more and more on technology. If rare earth metals were to slowly disappear, prices would rocket, and so would inflation rates, making it impossible to function for, at least, a prolonged period of time. For this reason, new alternatives and innovations in the tech industry are essential to sustainable development in order to secure steady development in this field without relying on an excessive amount on exhaustible materials.
Food Insecurity- Another crucial issue are the potential food shortages in the future in the face of our growing population which is estimated to hit a little under 10 billion by 2050. A country’s ability to feed itself very much depends on three factors: availability of arable land, accessible water and population pressures. The area of arable land currently available is diminishing due to deforestation which limits the availability of local food for people inhabiting areas near to the forests, especially for the peoples of Southeast Asia and South America. Due to the soil erosion, which usually occurs following the conversion of forest land into agricultural land for growing cash crops such as coffee, tobacco or cotton, formerly fertile land is unable to be used for agricultural purposes and often morphs into desert land.
Water Shortage- access to water is one of the main contributing factors to feeding a society. Water is being used in unsustainable ways to feed the growing needs of industries and livestock farms. At the same time, natural water recharge capability of earth is being diminished by urbanization, concretization and deforestation on a large scale. In case of unsustainable development, water availability might reduce to alarming levels, creating a war like situation.
The future can be safe only if the 17 goals identified under SDGs can be achieved in the predetermined time period. Any delay has the potential to wipe out a major part of humanity. Technology can be the guiding light to develop sustainably.