Sustainability - Our Retirement Account

Source Link: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/7119215-181/more-limits-foreseen-for-california?artslide=0

As I read “What is Sustainability” this week it was my first opportunity in this class to start informing myself about this topic. I don’t want to project that I have never cared about this area but I’m not sure I have truly dedicated the time to educate myself. Up to now I feel as if I have fallen in step with the bare minimum and my driver is my own need to look good and do the right thing (recycle, don’t waste). I’m excited so see my personal transformation as I become more informed and more prepared to be truly strategic in my actions. 

Our reading this week gave us a general overview of the three overlapping mutually dependent goals. The goals offered seemed very logical and even a succinct roadmap that on face value seems attainable. The first goal offered is to live in a way that is environmentally sustainable over a very long period of time. It’s not lost on me that this is the first listed goal offered as this seems to be a logical overarching goal for environmental conservation and management. We need to extend our environment and we need all our resources whether they are seen as “valuable” by society’s standards or not. The second goal offered is to live in a way that is economically sustainable over a long period of time which allows you to maintain living standards over a long period of time. This goal clearly is part of the plan as society will undoubtedly not always do the right thing while sacrificing to do so. I assume it is critical that we find options that not only checks the box of environmental sustainability, but offers solutions that are viable and sustainable from an economic stand point. The third goal involves living in a way that is socially sustainable over the long run. I won’t lie to you all and I will admit that this goal is lacking clarity and the reading indicated this goal continuous to be the weak spot out of the three goals. I assume it is focused on our need to produce options that can be supported and will be embraced by our societal circles. Producing options that are not accepted in our culture will result in failures. 

We know we draw from the resources around us. We also know that some of these resources are more important than others.  Our critical resources were defined in the reading as “those resources that are essential to life and basic social functions”. They further described examples of critical resources as water and/or the resources needed to produce food or other usable energy sources.  As I read this it made me wonder just how many items could or should fall into this “critical” category? Would we put access to a car in this category? What about electricity. I think our lists are long as we aren’t a society that quickly adjusts or is willing to do without. Unfortunately our resources cannot keep pace with our demands and our growing lists of what we deem to be critical. 

Our resources are not finite and regardless of their label (renewable or non-renewable) they have limits. We need to be constantly looking for opportunities to change, reduce or even substitute new options to replace or reduce the use of our resources. When I think about finding substitutes for our current resources I can think of a few two areas that we seem to be focusing on more over the past 10 years. The first area is our switch from traditional energy sources for our homes to solar. While I haven’t truly researched the statistics, solar is becoming far more common on an individual and a commercial level. The second area I see growth is our utilization of fossil fuels for our vehicles and a move to alternative sources such as electricity or natural gas. The list of renewable resources we can draw from is lengthy but the word “renewable” can be deceiving. Some resources like timber, water and plants and animals can regenerate which does make them “renewable”. Unfortunately, poor management, over utilization, greed and stress associated with changes in global conditions can change, stunt or stop this process. We see this locally as we read in the Press Democrat this week of the possible future closure of recreational abalone fishery. We are over consuming this recourse and the resource cannot regenerate.

In conclusion, our environment is like our individual (and our future generation) retirement plan. In order to maintain our current level of comfort we must ensure that our draw from that account is low enough to not disrupt or reduce the principle balance. In doing so, we ensure we have some to live off of and some for future years. Unfortunately our own greed can get in the way and we in turn withdraw too much which may feel good in the short term but won’t in the long term.  Our world simply cannot sustain our current pace…we need to change and we need to do so now!