Today, our human society’s wellbeing and survival on the planet Earth is under threat mainly because our impact on nature has stressed the delicate human-nature connection.
The
concept of sustainable development appears to be our best solution to this
sustainability crisis. Over the last couple of decades, sustainability and its
associated issues have moved to the centre stage of public debate and
government policy and sustainability has become an important aspect of both economy
and society.
The
trouble with sustainability is that its issues are complex and interconnected,
making it very difficult to understand.
This
complexity has generated much debate on the meaning and rigour of the term
‘sustainability’. As a result, the terms ‘sustainability’ and ‘sustainable
development’ (SD) have many definitions and interpretations, contested meanings
and interesting arguments. For example, Paul Maiteny argues that, for any
development to be identified as ‘development’, it must be sustainable in the
first place. So the term sustainable development (SD) is misleading and
unnecessary!
Next,
let’s explore in more detail what sustainability and SD mean…
Resources on the
challenge of sustainability
2011
2005
Challenges of Sustainable Development (Columbia
University)
2003
Four Challenges of Sustainability (radical.org)
2002
Thechallenge of sustainable development (Science AAAS)
The Challenge of Sustainability (Global Environment Facility)
Undated
Bibliography
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Beringer,
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Chalkley,
B. and Sterling, S. (2011) Hard times in higher education: the closure of
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Maiteny,
P. (2009) Completing the holistic perspective: emotions and psyche in Education
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K. (2011) Sustainability as an educational agenda. Journal of Cleaner Production, 19,
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A., Tilbury, D., Corcoran, P.B., Abe, O. and Nomura, K. (2010) Sustainability
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The Sustainable University One-stop Shop:
Central platform: http://www.sustainableuni.kk5.org/
Satellite websites: News and Information, Research, Good Practice, Quotes and Facts, Blog, Micro-blog (Twitter)
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