Smaller scale aid,
Sustainability and
Sustainable Development
Sustainable development is "Development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs."
— From the World Commission on Environment and Development’s
This is one of the big concepts or ideas in Geography at the
moment and links to the Environmental and Physical nature of the
subject.
Sustainable
means an action that can be kept going for ever, something that
can continue to be done without it having damaging consequences that
might limit that activity in the future. This is best considered through
examples. At present the human race extracts huge amount of crude oil,
which is a store of carbon from the ground. We process that crude oil so
that we can extract petrol and other chemicals for plastics etc. When we
do so the crude oil is gone forever, and on human time scales will not
be replaced. This is an UNsustainable activity, because the resource
being used in
NON-RENEWABLE
and our use of that material has damaging consequences - Carbon
Dioxide into the atmosphere and waste products such as plastic into
landfill sites. Already we are living well beyond the ability of the
planet to cope. You may have seen many news stories about how we are
extracting too much freshwater, we have put incredible pressure on the
Earth's soils, we use the ecosystem and in many cases abuse it (e.g.
Tropical rainforest destruction),
we have depleted fish stocks, we pollute the planet (e.g. Exxon Valdez,
Carbon Dioxide emissions causing global warming),
we ruin the countryside, we have extracted too much coal, oil, gas
minerals etc. This does not happen evenly across the globe, some people
are living more sustainable lives than others. You can
calculate your ecological footprint,
to see how much land area you need to sustain your lifestyle. Some of
the internet calculators will even tell you how many Planet Earth's we
would need if everyone lived like you!
We
can make the use of crude oil MORE sustainable by recycling plastics or
by driving Hybrid cars this reducing the amount of petrol used, but this
is still unsustainable in the long run. To be totally sustainable we
would have to not use cars that run on petrol and find alternatives to
using plastics - paper bags for your fruit and vegetables for example.
We could also try to use more
renewable energy sources,
such as wind, solar and
The Cahora Bassa dam can therefore be seen as
sustainable in many respects, despite the environmental problems it
caused.
It
is thought by many people that LARGE-SCALE aid projects are
unsustainable, and that smaller scale charity involvement and
intermediate technology can have a more positive impact for people.
Voluntary aid –
CAFOD in Haïti
Recall that the earthquake that hit Haïti in January 2010 killed
nearly a quarter of a million and left more than a million homeless.
CAFOD used public donations to help immediately. They provided
tents, shelters and emergency supplies for thousands of people who had
lost their homes. As people moved into camps, they built shower blocks
and latrines and ensured that there were supplies of safe water. These
helped in the immediate term but more needed doing to ensure that Haïti
could recover its development in the longer term. According to the CAFOD
website:
Today we are working with our Catholic partners to help rebuild
homes and communities. Our current projects include:
Building permanent, hurricane and earthquake-resistant homes,
training local engineers to lead the construction process
Helping people prepare for and manage future disasters,
for example through education about hurricanes in schools or by training
people in new farming techniques that reduce the risk of damage from
landslide
We have worked in Haiti since 1970. During that time, we have
supported a wide range of development projects involving literacy,
agriculture, women’s organisations and legal aid – and we have responded
to emergencies.
SOURCE –
CAFOD WEBSITE
Intermediate Technology and Appropriate Technology
Intermediate or appropriate technology is a move away from big aid
projects. It aims to use
simpler technologies that are right for the people, right for the
environment and right for the donor. In most poor countries, high tech
industries are too expensive to develop and inappropriate to the needs
of local people. Appropriate/intermediate technology is usually;
A)
Labour intensive - utilising and creating employment for local labour.
B)
Using sustainable technology and tools/knowledge of local people
C)
Uses
newly developed technology that are low cost and local which local
people can manage and control rather than IMPORTED techniques and
technologies
D)
In
harmony with the local environment.
Practical Action is a charity who uses appropriate technology in
a number of ways.
According to their website
Practical Action's
vision and mission is; Vision
- Technology justice: a sustainable world free of poverty
and injustice in which technology is used for the benefit of all.
·
building the
capabilities of poor men and women,
·
improving
their access to technical options and knowledge, and
·
working with people
to influence social, economic and
institutional systems for innovation and the use of technology.
Practical Action has over 100 projects worldwide helping over
900,000 people.
One type of project is using micro
hydro-electric power stations to generate electricity so people can work
their way out of poverty.
Micro-hydro power
is the small-scale gathering of energy from falling water, such as steep
mountain rivers. Using this renewable, indigenous, non-polluting
resource, micro-hydro plants can generate power for homes, hospitals,
schools and workshops.
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Coolgeography.co.uk by Rob Gamesby is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. |