Principals of sustainability
Discuss about the major principals of sustainability and the effect of climatic changes on Brazil.
Sustainable development is important as it is the process in which misuse of resources and the changes that may affect the development of current and future is analysed. Sustainable development covers the environmental, economic and social domain. Sustainable development makes sure that the present needs are met without compromising with the resources that would be needed by future generation. It makes sure that to fulfil present needs the future is not kept in danger (Inouye, et. al, 2015). The idea of sustainability has grown from past decades. In this report the main focus would be on Brazil regarding all the sustainable development concerns and issues faced by this country. Brazil is a country with a complex and geographical boundaries. There are various reasons due to which Brazil suffer from various topical issues of sustainability. In this report the main focus is on the suitability issues faced in Brazil ad what could be done to overcome the issues.
According to the world commission of environment and development it was stated that current need must not be fulfilled by compromising the ability of future generation. The principal of sustainable development assures that an individual live a healthy life without any natural disaster. The development in present scenario should not affect the environment that affects the future generation needs. In Brazil various laws have been developed to provide compensation for damage to any natural resources (de Andrade, et. al, 2015). They use various precautionary approaches to protect the nature. The environmental degradation is protected so that it does not cause any damage in the environment. The principle of Sustainability is to ensure that all existing resources are maintained for future generations. Living sustainably is about living within the means of our natural systems or environment and ensuring that our lifestyle does not harm society and culture (Darela Filho, et. al, 2016).
Following parameters need to be considered for development of sustainability.
- Environmental sustainability- In Brazil taking care of environmental sustainability involves maintaining all the natural resources (Groppo, et. al, 2015). It involves conservation of biodiversity, forest areas, watersheds and protection of other resources that are on the verge of extension. It helps in reducing the environmental related threats like loss of biodiversity, climatic changes or any global level issues.
- Economic Sustainability- It helps in promoting the economic sustainability by measuring the budgeting capacity of the country (Carley and Christie, 2017) . It covers the issue that might be related due to poverty or poor resources management.
- Social sustainability- It involves converting the man-made resources in a creative manner that could be used to fulfil the basic needs (Carley and Christie, 2017) . It emphasizes on local communities to be well aware about the sustainable ways of resource utilization.
- Institutional sustainability- In Brazil strict implementation of environmental policies and regulation helps in attain the objective of sustainable development.
Brazil is suffering from various environmental issues that include deforestation in the amazon basin, wildlife trade, air and water population, degradation of land, water population that is caused by mining activities. Climatic changes and environmental issues remain the major concern in Brazil. Deforestation is the major issue in Brazil and it comes due to the amazon rainforest. People cut down the forest which leads to release of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (Strezov, Evans and Evans, 2017). The increasing amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases the risk of climatic changes.
Parameters than need to be undertaken to measure sustainability
Acid rain is another reason due to give Brazil suffers from climatic changes. Acid rain led sot increase in level of sulphur dioxide or nitrogen oxide. Acid rain is harmful for the fishes in fresh water and plants in the water. Brazil suffers from acid rain due to this the acidity level of soil changes which is problematic fir plants and animals to grow in such regions. The other reason of Brazil suffering from sustainable issues is due to the fertile conditions (Musse, Homrich and Carvalho, 2018). Hunting is one of the reasons which have destroyed the natural resources and made many species endangered. Climatic conditions in Brazil are also affected by air pollution that is increasing day by day this is due to the fact that urbanisation and industrial development is taking place.
Additionally, Brazil suffers from disposal of waste products or garbage. It destroys the natural land by reducing the soil containments and making the landfills become toxic and unstable for future generation. Brazil is suffering from current crisis as number of crimes is increasing and there is no proper governance (Leal Filho, Manolas and Pace, 2015). Brazil has also failed to stop the Amazon’s deforestation which is affecting the natural resource and creating a problematic situation for upcoming generation. In order to resolve these issues Brazil has decided that sustainability is not only about the environment factors apart from that political, social, financial, and economic factors need to be taken care.
There is variety of reason because of which Brazil is undergoing such issues. The main reason for sustainability issue in Brazil is deforestation. The reason behind deforestation was clearing the land for plantations of crops as they need to be exported to different countries to earn better profits. Apart from that in Brazil a proposal was signed to build railway line through Amazon which led to clearing the forest. Almost 30 million acres land has been cleared for these purposes which will affect the lifestyle of upcoming generation (Clark, et. al, 2016).
The other reason due to which sustainability issues have increased in Brazil is production of food. Brazil is considered as one of the topmost food producer this has led to conversion of vast land for harvest purpose. Agricultural expansion in Brazil is harmful as it has increased amount of carbon dioxide in the air and has also increased soil erosion. This has led to destruction of forest habitat and also causes loss of biological diversity of both plants and animals. In addition to deforestation the sustainable issues arise due to illegal poaching that have affecting many native species of Brazil (Nogueira and Lopes, 2015). Apart from that issues in Brazil have increased due to soil erosion and contamination of water level. The soil erosion and reduce in water level has increased due to rise in population. The population is increasing day by day which has affected the natural resources of the place. These are the foremost issue of ecological degradation in Brazil. The increase in population needs new areas to live but it has lack of resources and trees that has forced the local authorities to build hydroelectric dams. Constructions of dams have destroyed entire ecosystems and have also led to increase the environmental problems (Wri, 2015). The impact of humans has also increased the risk as human’s practices various activities like cattle ranching, logging, and construction of damns and production of palm oil. These are the reasons which have increased the need of sustainability in the region. The resources are been used without thinking about the upcoming generation. The effect of climatic changes also led to sustainability issues as due to change in climatic conditions loss of production of crops occur.
Climate change affecting Brazil
The unsustainable situation occurs in Brazil if the natural resources are used at faster rate and that is replacing the resources by replenishing them. It is important to avoid the chances and secure the resources so that in future there is no shortage. If the resources are not sustainable then future generation would not be able to make use of the comfort. The depletion of resources needed to be prevented; one of the reasons in Brazil is global warming because of which temperature increases that led to cause climatic changes in the environment (González, Gonçalves and Vasconcelos, 2017). The warm and hot climate leads to affect the plants and animals species of the region.
Brazil is suffering from water distribution problem as there is bad quality management in case of floods and droughts. The issue of droughts and flood in Brazil are increasing due to the change in climatic conditions. These issues lead to major concern as there is no proper management plan developed to deal with issues of protecting the natural resources and due to poor educational knowledge (Nobre, et. al, 2016). The improper use of water bodies will affect the lifestyle of future generation as all the water bodies are destroyed by performing activities that are not illegal. Apart from that air is polluted due to the presence of industrial poles and chimneys as smoke is expelled in the air.
To improve the conditions in Brazil various measures are undertaken by government authorities like there are different departments to deal with climate and environmental changes, to look after biodiversity and forests related concerns. Various environmental related policies are implemented in Brazil for example National Council of the Amazon, National Council of Water Resources, Brazilian Institute of Environment and many others (Minella, et. al, 2018). The combined efforts of these groups help in making sure that sustainable growth is achieved in the environment.
In Brazil there are various local authorities that take care of poverty, limited access to justice and lack of services. These institutes are used to improve the quality of environment and work to save the natural resources. There are various control measures that are used to prevent the environment from sustainable system. The Brazilian Recycling program has proposed various controls to add values and also to increase the use of agricultural, industrial and urban areas. Other than that Brazilian market has defined the life cycle related to process of environmental standards (Fulquet and Pelfini, 2015). These programs account all the environmental, social, economic and cultural aspects of the area. These programs provide various guidelines to increases the use of natural resources. Additionally, it assures that the use of resources should be done in an effective manner and there should be no comprise with the resources for future generation.
Reasons for sustainability issues
There are various legal instruments that are used to improve the sustainability issues, the instruments covers crime laws, protection and defence code and the legal rights. The crime law includes all the measures that would be taken to avoid the issues by applying penalties, withholding of products and apply actions for the person who is violating the natural resources. The rights are designed that are regulated on daily basis and actions are taken for the one who damage the environment and the destroy property. Sustainable development is established to promote the use of resources by maintain the standards. The Brazilian industry respects the concept of maintaining the sustainability by supervising the entire activity and ensuring that individual is made aware about the right and wrong. Training is also provided to enhance the knowledge of an individual regarding all the environmental issues. These also use proper monitoring and assessment tools to protect the environment (Ghai and Vivian, 2014). In Brazil programs like national environment initiatives are taken to maintain all the sustainable activities by creating solutions for improvement.
The issue related to water bodies are improved in Brazil by implementing the laws for companies and farmers. The plans mainly focus on the impact of sustainable development on upcoming generation. The recovery plans are designed to protect the areas in which illegal activities are practised to destroy the water bodies. The degradation of air is also improved in Brazil by implementing the policy of national environment to control the air containments. This policy helps in measuring the air quality and applying obligations to improve the condition. To control deforestation, lands are categorized under reserved area that cannot be used for any purpose (Mendes, et. al, 2015). A certain portion of land is kept for future generation so that they do not need to comprise in their needs.
Thus from these measures natural resources are protected for future generation. Some of the resources are legally reserved and are kept for native use for upcoming generation. Various laws and regulations are generalised to reduce the misuse of resources and legal protection is applied to safeguard the resources (Wittman and Blesh, 2017)
If these issues are not undertaken they could led to problem from future generation. Excessive use of resources would impact the lifestyle of future generation. In Brazil UNESCO has started to provide education regarding sustainable development (Toni, Carneiro and Marcelo, 2015). These agencies are responsible for managing the overall development of the country by coordinating and implementing global action program. UNESCO has played an important role in Brazil as it support the country by expanding the activities that focuses on all the climatic changes and disaster risks.
The steps taken by Brazil to improve the sustainability have various steps. It involves creation of goal by government to implement the transparency of resources. Brazilian government have designed targets and then they link the target with the desired plan. In addition to this these actions are used to restrict the farmers for using the agricultural plots (Cohen, et. al, 2016). The permanent preservations are selected where deforestation is banned due to their value, thus it helps in securing the land for future use. According to the research it was found that due to these measures deforestation has been reduced by 80% in Brazil. The carbon emission in the atmosphere has also been controlled to some extent due to the control on forest. Brazil has always been considered as land of economic opportunities with abundant of natural resources present. The use of resources has been controlled and has worked to preserving its rich biodiversity.
Conclusion
In this report the topical sustainable issues in Brazil have been discussed. Sustainable development is important concepts that cannot be ignored as it make sure that the present development should not affect the need of upcoming generation. The issue faced in Brazil regarding sustainable development has been analysed. The measures undertaken to improve the conditions have also been discussed. There are various parameters that are looked to analyse the sustainability of a region like environmental, economic, social and institutional sustainability. Brazil is suffering from such issues due to climatic changes, deforestation, acid rains, excessive amount of carbon dioxide in atmosphere and improper disposal of garbage. These issues are rising day by day as lands are been occupied for plantation, chimneys are releasing toxic gases in the air and use of natural resources at faster rate. Various policies and laws are designed to resolve the issues of sustainable development in Brazil to making best use of natural resources. Thus from this report it can be concluded that Brazil need to work on all the measures to attain sustainability.
References
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