Bba300 Commons

1) Search for a definition of environmental sustainability on the Internet.  Select two of  them and briefly discuss the strengths and weaknesses.  Provide your own definition  of environmental sustainability

a. “is the rates of renewable resource harvest, pollution creation, and non-renewable resource depletion that can be continued indefinitely. If they cannot be continued indefinitely then they are not sustainable”

( Environmental Sustainability)

b. “is the study of how natural systems function, remain diverse and produce everything it needs for the ecology to remain in balance. It also acknowledges that human civilisation takes resources to sustain our modern way of life”(Mason)

i. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses just worded differently. The first one sounds more put together in the ways of describing the function of renewable and nonrenewable resources. My definition would be sustaining a healthy balance that supports human functions that are also sustaining the environment

2) Briefly explain how The Tragedy of the Commons is related to the concept of  environmental sustainability.  Identify and briefly discuss the ethical issues  implicitly and explicitly discussed in The Tragedy of the Commons?  Briefly explain if  you agree or disagree that there are no technical solutions to the environmental  sustainability issue?

c. With the Tragedy of the commons the easiest way to explain it is off of the video with the fishing pond example. If you deplete your source you will lose money, if you go to the public pond you will still deplete the source, but it doesn’t matter because someone else might get to it first which means you still won’t make any money. This is killing off renewable resources. I do believe that there are solutions, they just need to be sat down and thought about first before making an irrational decision. Ex: Maybe the city could place a “limit” on how many fish can be caught per day per person....