To complete this assignment,
Select a term from the list of choices in the Week 1 – Term Selection Table located in the course. Type your name in the table, next to the word that you would like to choose. Do not select a term that a classmate has already chosen; only one student per term. If you choose a term that is hyperlinked to a source, that term is one that is not mentioned in our textbook. Instead of being required to use the text as your third source for completing the assignment, you will be expected to use the hyperlinked source provided for you.
Download the Week 1 Assignment Template available in the course and replace the guiding text with your own words based on your online research. Please do not include a cover page. All references, however, should be cited in your work and listed at the end, following-
APA Style expectations. In the template, you will define the term thoroughly, in your own words. Explain the importance of the term using evidence. Discuss how the term affects living things and the physical world. Suggest two specific actions that can be taken to promote environmental sustainability in relation to the term. Explain exactly how those actions will aid in safeguarding our environment in relation to your chosen term. Provide detailed examples to support your ideas. The Sustaining Living Guide Contributions: Sustaining Biodiversity and Ecosystems paper & must be a minimum of three paragraphs in length (not including title, any quoted text, or references) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the University of Arizona Global Campus Writing Center’s APA Formatting for Word 2013 & Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice & resource for additional guidance. Must use at least two scholarly sources in addition to the course text. To aid you in your research. and particularly in locating.
Solution
The Sustaining Living Guide Contributions: Sustaining Biodiversity and Ecosystems paper: Sustainable development
Sustainable Development:
Sustainable development terms refer to meeting the needs of the present generation without affecting the needs and demands of the future generation. The idea of sustainability relates to the needs of natural resources also social and economic resources. The term first time introduced by the 1987 Brundtland Commission, has two main concepts. The first concept was ‘Needs’, which is essential for the poor so priority should be given. The second concept was to improve human well-being and improvement should be sustained over time. But the challenge is climate change and increasing demand for energy and resources making obstacles to achieving the target. Sustainable development goals are related to dignity, people, prosperity, and the planet. Dignity means to finish poverty in the world and brings equality to society. The term peoples refer to healthy long life including children and women. Prosperity involves economic growth that should be strong and inclusive Plans include protecting the ecosystem and saving our environment for all of our societies including children. United Nations has developed Five pillars of sustainable development people, partnership, peace, planet, and prosperity in 2015. Sustainable development helps countries to meet the requirements to overcome challenges facing climate change. It brings balance between social, natural, and economic resources. Sustainable development has four distinct are to study that included Human sustainability, environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, and social sustainability. The sustainable goals were taken by the United Nations in 2015 to end poverty and protect the planet by 2030 (Blicharska et al., 2019)
Biodiversity is a very important concept for sustainable development. Higher biodiversity means higher sustainability in the world. Higher biodiversity indicates the greater availability of genes and species in the ecosystem. Biodiversity associated with food, fiber, and water provides support to human health and gives more jobs available in agriculture, fisheries, forestry in many other sectors. So, it is very important to conserve biodiversity in a sustainable manner taken by the United nation to achieve it by 2030. Sustainable development goals 14 and 15 includes life below water and life on land are reflected in the role of healthy biodiversity in the ecosystem. There are 17 sustainable development goals that include clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy that regulates floods, protects soil erosions, and adds nutrients to crops that help in protecting biodiversity (Anderson et al., 2019) The energy produced from renewable resources like biomass, tides, agricultural residues protect our ecosystem to produce clean energy. A more sustainable global economy means a more stable ecosystem that is continuously facing climate change challenges. Climate action and sustainable development both are connected and play an important role in human well-being. Practicing sustainable development in land and soil projects helps the environment to create renewable energy resources in the economy. Sustainability reduces carbon footprints by achieving its SDG goals that include clean water, clean energy, climate actions, responsible consumption, and production. These goals can help the environment to reduce ecological footprints, water footprints, and also carbon footprints. Sustainable development goals help in consumption and production that protect the physical world to grow with quality and non-toxic food products for promoting good health in the present and future generations.
Sustainable development can reduce global warming by resource planning. Because it has aimed to create more energy resources with renewable resource elements that help reduce the consumption of energy (Reyers & Selig, 2020, p.1011). The term has some specific goals like protecting the people against pollution that helps to bring good health humans to and conserving the environment in a sustainable manner. It raises the standard of living that brings growth in populations and which produces human capital for the future generation without affecting the present generations. Sustainable development helps to protect the environment by taking various measures to minimize environmental problems for future generations without depriving the present generations. Different SDG goals such as zero hunger, no poverty, good health, and wellbeing, clean water, and sanitation help to reduce environmental problems. It is a measure that brings economic, social, and natural resources brings together in one frame to develop the nations. Five examples of sustainable developments are solar energy, wind energy, crop rotations, water-efficient fixtures, and vegetation and animal life. In the case of wind energy, it has created renewable energy that provides power to homes, offices. Sam as in the case of solar energy helps to distribute power to society. Many solar farms have been established on the rooftop that generates conventional power capacity from the sun. it is renewable power energy that saves Carbon-dioxide due to solar photovoltaic cells. Crop rotation improves soil fertility and helps chemical-free land farming. To preserve water many countries have introduced low-flow taps, showerheads, and conserved rainwater that helps to reduce water footprints in the ecosystems. Parks, lakes, and forests are developed in urban areas which produce oxygen and filter out air pollution.
References:
Anderson, C. B., Seixas, C. S., Barbosa, O., Fennessy, M. S., Díaz-José, J., & Herrera-F, B. (2019). Determining nature’s contributions to achieve the sustainable development goals. Sustainability science, 14(2), 543-547.
Blicharska, M., Smithers, R. J., Mikusiński, G., Rönnbäck, P., Harrison, P. A., Nilsson, M., & Sutherland, W. J. (2019). Biodiversity’s contributions to sustainable development. Nature sustainability, 2(12), 1083-1093.
Reyers, B., & Selig, E. R. (2020). Global targets that reveal the social-ecological interdependencies of sustainable development. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 4(8), 1011-1019.
Martín, E. G., Giordano, R., Pagano, A., van der Keur, P., & Costa, M. M. (2020). Using a system thinking approach to assess the contribution of nature based solutions to sustainable development goals. Science of the Total Environment, 738, 139693.
