Student Name: K Mhlongo
Student: 62737198
Step 1: Set the scene
My ecological footprint 3.8 hectares, to support my lifestyle, it will take 2.1 planets each year to
support human population. According to Brundtland, sustainable development is defining as follows
“sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs”. The largest area on my
footprint is on food, mobility and shelter.
Part A
Having read the content and reports on sustainability I feel guilty about how I am utilising natural
resources, this somehow shows that I was being inconsiderate about the earth’s well-being.
Considering that the average of South African ecological footprint is 2.6 hectares of food, fibre,
timber, land and energy (According to the World Wildlife fund’s living planet report, 2001). But
the earth can only support an average of 1,8ha per person. Well, my footprint is too way above
the threshold of 1.8ha, which it makes me realise that I have done much damage to the earth. I
am fiercely disappointed about my results shown above. This indicate that I am unsustainable
because I am consuming more than my share. In order words, my consumption of resources and
waste generation is very high. I think I should take major changes to do better than this in order
to reduce my CO2 emission. I think changing my lifestyle slightly, would help me to reduce my
ecological footprint, this includes but not limited to factors such as using more than two sources
of energy, using light vehicle or maybe use more of public transport.
Part B
Based on my responses or discussion in assignment 06, I claimed that I practice these virtues,
because I feel that rhino has a significant intrinsic value. And for this assignment in the light of taking
my ecological footprint test, I can strongly agree that I haven’t done justice to the planet as my
ecological footprint is way above the threshold of 1.8. It’s about time I see everything on earth as
important as I am which is why it is important to keep it sustained for future generation.
Part C
It’s all in the outcome – Consequentialism
Utilitarianism will definitely agree that the 20000 death of children who die every day
Assignment 03. because there will be less people competing for scarce available resources and
also in terms of sustaining the environment, there will be less pressure of population on land
(decrease in the number of family members would play a huge role in reducing high CO2
emission). So, the rapid increase in human population can cause environment major problems
such as overgrazing of animals, deforestation when famers want to create more space for their
plantation. Remember as the human population increases the environment or land cannot
expand to accommodate or feed all of us. Therefore, according to Utilitarianism, would favour
decision of letting these children die as this will benefit the human species as a whole in terms
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of less completion over the scarce resources and the country’s/ world economy would have less
burden to feed such a large number of people. Lastly the utilitarian would also support their
decision because less population would improve the effective and efficient use of natural
resources and less production of waste.
Fair’s Fair – Distributive Justice
It’s our duty to make sure that we sustain the environment in a way that it will not affect the future
generation negatively. Looking my ecological footprint, it does not support the distributive justice
perspective as it is basically about equality, in other words my footprint of 2.1ha, means that I
exceeded my share and it shows that the is no equality. I should try to save enough amount of our
precious resource to guarantee enough for economic and other resource for future generation.
Greenies – Environmental Ethics
To obtain sustainable development in the world, it is important that we take care of the things
that give us life, nature to be specific because all the resources that support our lifestyle
originated from natural resources. Human beings would not survive without nature. At this
generation we are living, we are using the planets resources but we are not replacing the
resources quick enough for the planet to be functioning at full capacity. We are cutting
down more trees than what we are planting. We are using more water than it is raining,
we are emitting more fuels than what the ozone layer can handle, and we are using
more resources than what we are recycling. We should use more recyclable products to
help reduce the rate at which goods are being produced. Saving trees and using less
modified products is also another factor that can help us achieve our goals.
Reference:
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/sustainability
https://www.iisd.org/topic/sustainable-development
