Revolutionary War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Revolutionary War - Essay Example Washington never understood why slaves would freely choose to fight for their new home. The great majority of slaves only cared about their freedom, so joining the American colonists provided an avenue for this wish. The reason why more blacks joined the Loyalist forces is because they were offering freedom to those who fought. As a result, the Loyalist forces had more men to fight with and had the upper hand in the war. Thousands of blacks chose to side with the British forces because of the promise of freedom—something that the American colonists were not so willing to offer. George Washington barred the recruitment of black soldiers even though they had already fought with whites at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill. This choice proved to be a terrible mistake—although not fatal. It took until the winter of 1777-78 for Washington to reconsider his earlier decision. The American colonists were losing the war and the Continental Army had fallen to only 18,000. Because of these circumstances, Washington finally decided to enlist a regiment of black slaves from Rhode Island. Even though Washington allowed blacks to join the war effort, they were used in basic capacities only. George Washington did not trust blacks at all—he believed that they would take advantage of their new found freedom and run away and desert the army. Washington came from a Southern background and felt that he had to appease South Carolina’s leaders over the issue of slavery. After the war had ended, Washington demanded that former slaves be sent back to their previous masters. This also included the blacks who had fought for the British Loyalists and were now considered American

Ethical Issues in Media Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ethical Issues in Media - Research Paper Example So, in case it features some corruption in terms of Ethics, the impact that it has on the social environment will be quite destructive. In addition to that, media platforms are known to form public opinion; therefore, if they convey information that is not correct, a part of the society will develop a wrong perception of reality. This paper will analyze an example that appeared in the media and violated ethics of journalism, proving that this is not acceptable for a reliable source of news and have negative influence on the society in general. Thus, when NBC which is a well known network was covering the shooting of Trayvon Martin, it featured audio recording that portray the alleged killer in a biased way. For example, George Zimmerman is showing saying: This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.† (â€Å"Trayvon Martin case†). However, this is not exactly what Zimmerman said. He did say that the person who he was watching was up to no good, but the phrase â€Å"he looks black† was a reply to the question: â€Å"OK, and this guy — is he black, white or Hispanic?† (Wemple, 2012). So, in the first situation, people might think that Zimmerman was a racial profiler since he connected ethnicity of the boy and his activity; however, the objective picture shows that he simply answered the question that he was asked (Ross, 2014, 64). Therefore, one would make no mistake pointing out that NBC presented an incorrect depiction of Zimmerman, trying to make him appear a worse perso n than he actually was. The First Amendment should be engaged in the discussion of this situation. According to it, the law prohibits any infringing on the freedom of the press; however, the latter is required to convey objective data. In case it fails to do so, the law should punish it (Anastaplo, 2007, 222). If one takes a look at the ethical issue in question, one will be able to see that it compromises justice to a

Product Comparisons among three Separate Retailers Assignment

Product Comparisons among three Separate Retailers - Assignment Example The second shop is located at the bus terminal. The business targets people who are about to travel or those embarking from their journeys. The owner deals with home theatre systems in addition to phones. This is an advantage when compared to the first shop due to a variety of goods for sale. The shop has services such as educating the consumer on how to utilize the product. The strategy aims at the achievement of customer loyalty with the store. The customers who buy more than one phone get discounts and rewards, as a strategy, to encourage more purchases. The third shop is located at the airport. The target market consists of tourists and domestic professionals. The consumers buy such goods before boarding the flight or due to local network compatibility issues. After sell services provided, such as internet configuration, enables the owner be competitive in the market. The other advantage is the availability of product variation of the electronics. The other strategy that the retailer employs is the ability of the business to stay operational for longer hours. This is because the airport is in operation all the

Surging poverty in a key to crime Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Surging poverty in a key to crime - Essay Example You will not be permitted or approved to walk that street, you are not even allowed to sit or sleep and it is strictly prohibited for you to roam around like a normal citizen of the society. This forces me to ask a simple question that is being poor a crime itself or is being poor a doorway to crime? If questioned, City officials come up with a self-satisfactory answer that the State’s laws are constituted in a way, not to discriminate. They have their own way of explaining it. If someone is lying down on some random sidewalk, whether that someone is wealthy or a homeless, he has violated the ordinance. Another way these officials put up the law and equality is by saying that it actually forbids both, the rich and the poor to sleep under bridges. This arouses a thought: why would the wealthy even consider of sleeping under a bridge when he knows he has a better, luxurious and comforting place to spend his night. Moreover, the recent study indicates that poverty has intensified as recession has continued to eliminate jobs, thus generating higher poverty ratio. Deriving information from the study highlighting poverty and homelessness, conducted by the National Law Center shows that the statistics of poor public have continuously increased since the year 2006. As a result, a higher ticketing ratio and an increased number of arrests have been observed. People have been ‘taken in’ for more neutral violations such as littering, holding an open bottle of alcohol or jaywalking (Ehrenreich 2009). Therefore, the connection between the two, poverty and crime has been a controversial debate. However, it can be said that in our country there is an obvious relationship between them.  Poor in our society make up the overflowing majority (Williams 2007). It is well said that an improved society can be evaluated by how it administers the poor. In the light of this saying, the Americans are a hopeless failure. Current situation indicates that on a nationwid e scale, up to 20% of children reside in poverty. In Los Angeles, almost 30% of children suffer from poverty (Holmes 2002). The brutality of the official’s temperament towards the poor, indigent and homeless in our society can at times be breathtaking. ‘Food Not Bombs’ was the name of a group that started to function a few years back. The group’s motive was to feed the poor in the society and therefore, launched free vegetarian food in public parks, with a hope to serve hungry people nationwide. Not long after, when this activity was initiated, many cities including Las Vegas approved an ordinance that forbade food sharing with the hungry and poor in public places. As an outcome, most members of this public service group were taken into custody. This is yet another cause that further spoils our social situation. Such acts play an important part towards criminalizing people (Ehrenreich 2009). Furthermore, criminal justice professors and sociologists have fo und mutuality between poverty and crime.  Logically people who are victims of poverty are much likely to be connected and involved in criminal acts such as street crimes, larceny, burglary and shoplifting. As per the evaluations, city of Detroit is one of the poorest regions in America and  Michigan’s economy is estimated to have the worst economic conditions as compared

The disclosure structure and its effect on performance Essay

The disclosure structure and its effect on performance - Essay Example The research combined content examination of CSR reports, and corporate performance data of various companies covered in the Accountability Rating statistics of the period 2004 to 2007 to facilitate the study. The study utilized a multifaceted approach to analyze influential variables capable of informing the analysis. Particularly, the research related the level, and structure of environmental and societal disclosure to CSP. The research utilized a design capable of addressing study objectives accordingly. The research sample was developed by following informed procedures leading to the establishment of an inclusive sample. The research identified influential variables for measuring the effect of practice on the firm’s performance to examine the effect of the disclosure level and the structure on the company’s CSP. According to Panneerselvam, an ideal study must define all essential variables that when examined can help one develop an informed conclusion. The researche r should acknowledge different types of variables to propose ideal method for assessing each. Researchers conducting the analysis considered the variables while setting a sample for their study. This is evident in the study’s approach of focusing on a sample of organization with essential statistics that allowed researchers assess all necessary variables consistently. The study sourced data from a diverse population of global companies included in reliable business statistics to develop a longitudinal dataset for the study.

Bad for Teenagers Worldwide Essay Example for Free

Bad for Teenagers Worldwide Essay This research paper mainly deals with how hip-hop music and things that are related to hip-hop are bad for teenagers. Some factors to be found that affect the teenagers are their lyrics or language used, media, clothes integrated, cross-over appeal, gender bias and racism, and the potential of this culture to break ethnic groups in our society. This also tackles some punishments that might be incurred by the youth from the bad effects of hip-hop. The hip hop traditions have pervaded all the rage way of life in an extraordinary manner. While shaped by â€Å"black youth† on the road, the impact of hip hop has turned out to be global. It has undertaken the outer reaches, to the peripheries, and into the communal panel quarters. Even though that the hip hop customs is a probable intense merger of varied populace for the reason that it has its massive traverse attractiveness, it still has its drawback effects. Having its collective influence on teenagers, the concept of hip hop has the aptitude to carry political, societal and trade and industry concerns in the way of life by exposing the public perceptiveness on what is in actuality occurring worldwide and negative aspects on the society and teenagers in particular (Africa Resource Center, Inc., 2007). Language Hip hop in the contemporary time is not similar as it appeared when it started. The precedent hip hop did have a discussion with reference to troubles of existence and music was merely for enjoyment. Different from the earlier period, the present day hip hop confers about subordinates and diversion. Each and every recent hip-hop composition are about the flight of the imagination vivacity as being prosperous, having grandeur, and catching every gorgeous lass, thus altering the standards of living of youngsters. They also influence the teenagers psyche on how to get all these assets aside from rigorously exerting one’s effort in a genuine job. The hip hop lyrics sway them to just vend illegal drugs, filch, and do not be concerned regarding other people. Street verbal communication is broadcasted to the hip hop ethos in the course of rap melody (Williams, 2003). One can perceive the sound of a hip hopper by means of the similar colloquial speech as the African American performers. Irrespective of their civilization, they use words like the word â€Å"nigger† which is one of their most common terms, with some customary belittling connotation of the remark. The rap performers may be revealing narratives of their jagged existence all the way through compositions, however the language used is wreaking the mentality of the listeners, does somehow indoctrinating them, as they tend to take note of the libretto over and over again. The majority of hip-hop music has exaggerated lines to gain lure more interest and sales. Hooligan hit, which shamelessly portrayed fugitive demeanor in the metropolitan, became prevalent. Media The channel of hip hop give the impression of being awfully accommodating of this kind of song and facilitates performers a great deal for their endorsements. Countless television programs have been allotted to hip hop. New-fangled records are constantly publicized on small screen. In point of fact, radios are also enormously especially significant for the progress of hip hop melodies since the youth can have the opportunity to eavesdrop various sorts of the hip hop songs everywhere. Even subversive kinds of music are aired here. These media are the factors that thrust them in the hip hop realm. Ahead of backing hip hop additionally, all hit music videos on music television or MTV must be evaluated well at the same time the youth cohorts of hip-hop must be monitored. If a small screen program can detonate a person from expressing his outlook on certain matters, then recording corporations should also be able to lay off artists for affronting people. Hip hop songs expose this class of aggression and compulsion around sexual pursuits as ordinary affairs. There is an existing reception among adolescents of the type of â€Å"sexual objectification† eminent in this manner of composition, and its displayed videos (Dickinson, 1998). Clothing As indicated by Kakutani, city juvenile African-Americans have drafted in the clothing of higher class whites as a sign of being short of authority in American civilization. Despite the fact that definite stuff achievement maybe unfeasible, the justification for embellishing luxurious branded get-up items is to put forward a picture of victory (1997). A means to utter contempt is by making out with the rebel figure of the street. A lot of fair children are civilizing sightseers who put on a pedestal the extremely ghetto living that numerous black youth desire to getaway. As an alternative of the dreadful transience degree for black adolescents, they perceive the thrill of hostility and as a substitute of aggravation, they set eyes on the vocal disobedience of that annoyance. She also proposed that this explicit channel of emblematic manifestation of teenagers have been converted into the biggest addressees of gangster music. Dark pelt and smeared tresses corresponded to the zeitgeist. The period of 1990 has become subjugated by hip hop style. This is made up of saggy denims showed very slackly, caps displayed rearwards, extra-large tops, and costly sporty footwear. This trend, distinctive from that of the other age groups, has inimitably crossed nearly every cultural frontier. A noteworthy quantity of African American, Whites, and Asian teenagers, without a doubt, get dressed the correspondingly despite of their background (Kakutani, 1997). Cross-over appeal For the reason that hip hop becomes an growing craze, colossal business corporations such as branded shops, industrial stores, and food chains in fact have profited from this occurrence (Salzman, Smith, and West, 1996). While detractors of the hip hop traditions appeared to be paranoid on the implication of sexual characteristics, brutality, and ruthless lingo, this field provides the youth of an archetype of what could be. In the equivalent stratum, the hip hop culture has defied the scheme in conduct that have amalgamated persons, predominantly the youth, crossways an abounding cultural variety. Notwithstanding this maturity of teenagers toward the sense of right and wrong of a nation for advancement, they all the same accepted a facade of American hip hop celebrity verves. Youngsters, alcohol, merrymakings, automobiles, posh garments make up their milieu. They typically do this to demonstrate their control although as a substitute of that, they are debasing their representation and showing a ghastly paradigm to the young people. Hip hop genre which give the impression to be acting the equal part which is to congregate the adolescents as one for an enhance awareness of societal matters and as a result, youngsters are urged to move violently for countrywide settlements. That is why events and performance are continuously prepared to allow the adolescents to put across their way of thinking and behaving through these avenues (Reese, 1998). Gender bias and racism Loads of individuals believe that Hip hop songs and traditions have an immoral power on the youth and that these have an unscrupulous standing of demeaning females through compositions that employ nasty colloquial speech and label females as â€Å"hoes†. What is sardonic is that the performers bring into play renowned terms, nevertheless if was to be told, it would sound as a racist. The artists do not become conscious that the youth is more affected by their kind of songs than any other. They ponder that coarse-hood living is breezy, amusing, and ferocity on the roads is hip, too. Moreover, if the commerce indicates agreement of librettos upholding abhorrence and taking advantage of the females are more and more acknowledged as valid types of inventive demonstration, hip hop music will certainly continue. Such well-known artists like Eminem has obtained a large amount of appreciation and awards delinquent hip hop music which is idolized by many. According to an interview with Dr. Gwendolyn Pough, â€Å"It definitely has an impact on young women, especially young black women† and there exists a few correlations to the themes of hip hop music and how a quantity of juvenile females picture themselves or perform (Alexander, 1998). That melody can generate a frame of mind for the youth and currently, there is a mounting penitentiary female inhabitant for their dealings, for vending illegal items and executing offenses for their boyfriends. A commended multimedia display intended to replicate female encounters with pestering, declares that hip hop melody has at all times been manipulative since it is so undemanding to absorb. It is an idea that females are perceived as things that is acceptable to be merely handed over along the guys. Punishments As stated by Rose in 1991, the associations between trendy society and lawbreaker regulations make available a brief account of hip hop customs, with particular consideration to the violation of directives that is present at the hip hop customs origin. This describes the bearing of hip-hop to the modern discussion in criminal decree erudition about public conventions. The point expressed is that â€Å"street† felony is a chief peril to the youth’s welfare and interests. Each of the notions of penalties such as vengeance, preclusion, incapacitation, and treatment, has come to more projection because of the inventive propositions of hip hop line of attack (Butler, 2004). It initially presents the inkling to engage retaliation as for the belief that for each deed there is an equal rejoinder. Hip hop culture grasps chastisement in person. Several youth in the hip hop realm have been imprisoned or have relatives who have been detained. Reprimand is an implementation of the society’s law enforcement control, as well as a repercussion of personal associations. The hip hop principle of retribution for the youth recognizes that once numerous youngsters are gone from their areas for the reason that they are being damned by the authority, penal complex may have inadvertent costs. Reprisal must be the entity of castigation; nevertheless it should be restricted by critical public good. In a noteworthy period in American record, hip hop sounds are mulling over the outlays of chastisement. Daring, defiant, time and again blasphemous, its melody has multicultural critic since for an instance, the concepts of hip hop aired in different media without fail disapprove of the authority’s courses of action (Lewis, 1998). The most normally alluded to current case in point is harsher central consequences for the use of prohibited drugs such as â€Å"crack cocaine† by the youth. These states of affairs are difficult to envisage for the reason that most of American hip hop customs are not directly articulated politically. Moreover, there almost certainly would be extensive divergence among the creators and regulars of the hip hop scheme about what political views to promote. The chastisement for producers was in particular severe. This topic is not fresh or remarkably astounding within a democratic system wherein anyone would anticipate hip hop society to report to bylaw. The latent of hip hop customs, nonetheless, to manipulate regulations appears less palpable, perchance as hip hop is a merchandise of youngster way of life and conceivably as it give the impression to rejoice insolent and even fugitive demeanor (Africa Resource Center, Inc., 2006). There are a number of stuffs about the formation of hip hop under this category. Initially, numerous performers acquired an active vision of the regulations. The infringe edict did not discourage the graffiti performer, the patent ruling did not hinder the disc jockeys from checking out any hip hop songs that they sought after, and the assets rule did not put off the jockeys from taking advantage of electrical energy from road posts at community recreational areas. Additionally, the hip hop way of life was more about reprocessing or remixing rather than generating out something new. Practically countless hip hop performers labeled themselves reflecting of the criminal directive. As a conclusion, hip hop traditions are atypical, habitually plainly opinionated. Its affairs of state are not all the time straightforward to uncover, and on a few matters, there is an immense multiplicity of viewpoints. Hip hop characteristics indeed presents a lot of disadvantages for the youth as these not only harm them physically, but also mentally. On the evenhandedness and efficacy of American iniquitous impartiality, the hip hop population seems to be dangerously addresses as solitary and the acts of certain groups of youngsters may be hazardously carried out in the society. In the modern account of the world, it is challenging to believe that another leading style of well-liked tradition is growing at a larger scale since several teenagers seem to be listening and adapting the fashion. Hip-hop customs also creates physically powerful set of circumstances for a revolution of criminal impartialities worldwide in the future.Bearing in mind the aforementioned negative factors, this prospect ought to have further inspections and assessments. References: Africa Resource Center, Inc. (2006). Black Life, its Culture, Politics and Consciousness, for â€Å"All Over the World†. ProudFlesh Journal. Africa Resource Center, Inc. (2007). Hip-Hop Culture. Academic Peer-Reviewed Journals. Alexander, Keith L (1998, December). Hip-Hop Magazine Gets Fiery Start, Good and Bad, USA Today interview, 30. Butler, Paul (2004, April 1). Much respect: toward a hip-hop theory of punishment. Introduction: The Hip-Hop Nation. Dickinson, Chris (1998, January 4). 3-CD Set Chronicles History of Rap,† Everday Magazine, 3. Kakutani, Michiko (1997, February 16). Common Threads: Why Are Homeboys and Surbanites Wearing Each Others Clothes?. The New York Times Magazine, 18. Lewis, Gregory (1998). Hip Hop Gives Birth to Its Own Black Economy, The San Francisco Examiner. Reese, R. (1998). The Hip Hop Culture and Ethnic Relations. Far West and Popular Culture Conference From the Fringe. Retrieved June 12, 2007, from http://www.tolerance.org/

Concepts for Environmental Sustainability

Concepts for Environmental Sustainability A Perspective on environmental sustainability? Environmental Sustainability The Commissioner acts as an independent voice that advocates, audits and reports on environmental sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to explore the meaning of environmental sustainability. The community needs a definition of environmental sustainability that is easily understood, is logical, and is helpful in facilitating understanding, communication and effective action by all key players (government, community, business, innovators, academia, communicators, etc.). The paper also explores the meaning of related terms and definitions eg. sustainability and related words in common usage ecologically sustainable development (as defined by the Commissioners enabling legislation) sustainable development (the Brundtland definition) triple bottom line. A preferred definition of environmental sustainability Environmental sustainability is the ability to maintain things or qualities that are valued in the physical environment This is the simplest and most fundamental way to express the concept.But people using the term environmental sustainability can specify or elaborate the term further to add extra meaning or to apply the concept to more specialised contexts. What is the physical environment? This is the physical surrounds to something.For example, the land, waters and atmosphere, physical resources and thebuildings and roadsand other physical elements go to make up the urban environment.Rural environments are made up of the farms and living areas of people andthe land and waters and atmosphere and biological elements (species utilised by agriculture, pest species, and native species, and ecological communities both human induced and natural).Natural environments are those where the influence of wild species (indigenous and naturalised) is dominant or very strong.Physical resources, of all sorts, including mineral resources, can be considered to be part of the environment. Physical environments can be considered on all scales from the micro to the local, global and even larger scales. There is no sharp distinction between the environmental and other domains (eg. social and economic) in fact the content of each domain overlaps other domains massively. The key to understan ding doesnt lie in trying to set non-overlappingboundaries between the domains but lies in being clear about the focus of different domains. (Link to) Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability Act 00 The physical environment includes the natural and biological environments. What makes an issue a sustainability issue? A sustainability issue arises whenever a valued system, object, process or attribute is under threat.The existence of the valued system, object, process or attribute could be threatened or its quality could be threatened with serious decline. In other words there is a sustainability issue whenever there is something that is valued that faces the risk of not being maintained. Whenever there is a strong sense of urgency, there is always a sustainability issue involved.This urgency couldrelate to something thatalready existsortoan understood potential.For example biodiversity might be threatened with extinction or the chance to realise the potential of a human being might be threatened, for example, if they remain in poverty or their lives are threatened by violence or disease.(The latter would usually be thought of as being social sustainability issues.) What exactly are we trying to maintain in the physical environment and who decides? There is no automatic, fixed agenda built into the term environmental sustainability. We have to look to the context to see what might be sustained.And many people and organisations already have well developedideas about what aspects of the total environment should be sustained when environmental sustainability is pursued. In a place like Victoria, with our culture, political processes and physical environment, there is strong public pressure to maintain (sustain) things like: ecosystem services (eg. nutrient cycling, the water cycle, natural water purification, climate moderation, soil protection high quality urban environments areas of natural beauty other species and ecological communities the user value flowing from physical resources (eg. minerals, energy, renewableresources, water) What motivates us to want to sustain something in the physical environment? We might want to sustain something in the physical environment because it is useful to us: e.g. the quality of local urban environments. Or we might want to do it because we care about the wellbeing of other people or other species for their sake, not ours. That is we can be motivated by utilitarian concerns and/or altruism. Sometimes we maintain something in the environmental domain in order to make it possible to achieve another goal in another domain.For example, we might sustain marine habitats in order to support the livelihood of coastal townships.Or we might sustain renewable resources so that we can support economic development or genuine progress Genuine progress is development that creates new benefits without undermining or destroying old benefits that are still valued in the community.In recent years a lot of work has been done on ‘genuine progress indicators as alternatives to GDP measures .) How long should we try to sustain something? This question can only be answered after deciding specifically what needs to be sustained and why. For example, ecosystems services for clean air would need to be sustained as long as there are living things (including people) that need to breatheclean air.For all practical purposes that means forever . Living species seem to last on average a few million years before becoming extinct though some may evolve into new species.So if we maintained a natural extinction rate for species it is so low that for practical purposes we would need to manage in the here and now as if we wanted all species to survive, effectively forever. Sustaining the recycling of certain materials may only need to continue for as long as those material types are needed technologically, and depending on the pace of technical change this could be for centuries or for decades.It is risky to assume that resources are only needed for a short time however as society might find new uses for materials as technology, lifestyles and environmental awareness develop. When it comes to trying to sustain habitat on a site-s pecific basis, very specific localised habitat or ecological community patches might need to persist for anywhere between thousands of years and just a few years depending on the ecological system involved provided all of the dependent species can access these habitat or ecological community typessomewhere consistently and at adequate scale within their local ranges forever. Is there any connection betweenenvironmental sustainability and social or economic sustainability? Since humans depend in countless ways on the physical environment (both natural and human constructed) sustaining desired environmental conditions directly contributes to the sustaining of people and human societies, that is, to social sustainability.The viability of theeconomy clearly depends on environmental resources and service flows so economicsustainability depends on environmental sustainability. More generally it can be seen that sustainability in one domain can be necessary for sustainability in another.Sustainability requirements can be mapped to show complex dependencies across domains.We classify sustainability issues into separate domains, not because the sustainabilityissues are unrelated, but for reasons of convenience and tradition, for example, to allow specialisations to develop in RD and administration, to break up complex whole into mentally manageable chunks, to reflect historical connections, etc. Can the idea of environmental sustainability drive commitments to specific action? While the idea ofenvironmental sustainability is very broad in its possible scope, concerns for environmental sustainability can be translated in specific practical goals and these can and should drive action programs.See the section How to use the definition of environmental sustainability to facilitate effective action. on page . Is restoration part of an environmental sustainability program? In a world where life-support systems and other conditions required for sustainability have been run down,environmental sustainability can only be achieved through a combination of both preventive and restorative actions.So restoration is a key part of what needs to be done to achieve sustainability.In most instances it is better to avoid destroying environmental values in the first place rather than relying on restoration as the primary strategy.However, where damage has been done that could prevent valued elements of the physical environment being sustained, restoration should not be overlooked. If we pursue an environmental sustainability program how much should we try tosustain? The physical environment is powerfully affected by and is made up of evolving systems ecological systems, societies and economies.These evolving systems will create changes in some aspects of the physical environment and will prevent or resist changes in other aspects.So anenvironmental sustainability program could never aim to sustain or maintain absolutely every component and attribute of the entire physical environment.Anyenvironmental sustainability program must start out by being clear about what it is hoped will be maintained in the physical environment and what can be allowed to change or what will be made to change.Precisely what people set out to sustain within the physical environment will depend on their value judgements, needs, skills and technology and available resources to support the action program and the current state and the dynamics of the physical environment.We cannot assume that we automatically know what should be sustained (and what should not) in the physic al environment just because there is an environmental sustainability program operating.We need to work the answer out explicitly. The origin of the core word sustain and its main derivatives The word sustain has been in the language for thousands of years.It comes from the Latin sustenare meaning to hold up ie. to support.From there it evolved long ago to mean to keep something going or extend its duration, with an overtone of providing the support or necessities that made the extended duration possible eg. a sustaining meal.These days, for commonest non-specialised use of the word the closest synonym is maintain. Sustain and its derivatives (eg. sustainability, sustainable, sustaining) were first used in a micro or personal context.However several hundreds of years ago the Swiss and Germans invented a form of forestry designed to keep the forest going as productive systems over the very long term and this was called, in the English speaking world, sustainable forestry.The idea was then extended to sustainable fisheries. From there it was not such a big step for the term to be applied, during the 0s and 0s, in the macro context of environmental issues where there was a need to sustain the whole environment and human society.This usage was established by the time of the UN Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm. The drifts in meaning Having reached a macro level of application sustainability was most often talked about in terms of sustainable development.The 0 World Conservation Strategy produced by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN or World Conservation Union) put forward the concept of sustainable development meaning development that would allow ecosystem services and biodiversity to be sustained.The Brundtland Report shifted the meaning of sustainable development to mean â€Å"development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generationsto meet their own needs†. Then the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio set in train processes such as Agenda and Local Agenda that resulted in many people coming to the view that sustainability equals the integration or balancing of environmental, social and economic issues or simultaneous progress in the environmental, social and economic domains, often in t he context of strong programs of consultation and participation. Many people however felt uneasy with the notion of development as it is often associated with the destruction of environmental and social attributes that they value, so they felt better talking about sustainability rather than sustainable development. So, over time sustainability and sustainable development came to be treated by many people as synonyms.This trend was reinforced because some people found the term sustainable development to be a bit of a mouthful and they used sustainability as a convenient (if inaccurate) shorthand. As the scale of the taskof achieving a sustainable environment and society has become apparent many people have tried to insulate themselves from the enormity of the challenge by retreating into small incremental changes.So some people have started to say that sustainability is a process of change and not an end state, and that its the journey that counts, not the destination. As the terms sustainability and sustainable development have been used more and more in government and corporate circles, because of increasing discussion of environment and development, the business world has started using the terms more and more for its own purposes.Curiouslyin this context sustainable has quickly reverted to its earlier simple meaning of able to be maintained.So sustainable profits, or sustainable competitive advantage mean profits or competitive advantage that can be maintained for the longer term.The straightforward use of sustain and its derivatives within the domain of business is understandable because businesses face competition and hence the risk of decline and extinction every day of the week.This experience of threat leads business people to reproduce meanings of the terms that are the same as those in long-term common usage or those in the area of biological conservation. The benefits of definitional clarity and a strong relationship to core meanings The important benefit of definitional clarity is that it makes it easier to avoid logical problems and makes effective action more likely. A search on the web reveals hundreds of definitions of sustainability and sustainable development Although this diversity is a little overwhelmingit is not really. surprising given that there are many diverse people involved in the sustainability debate and there are legitimate complexities involved.However, a careful review of these definitions reveals that they fall into four basic categories only one of which (type ) is a normal dictionary-style definition.The other types are referred to in this paper as contextual definitions because they create a greater understanding of the context of a term rather than defining its essence.The four types of definitions are: Type : definitions based on the essence: x is/means y eg. sustainability is/means the ability to sustain something; sustainable development is development that can be maintained; sustaining development is development that sustains something Type : contextual definitions based onstrategies for achieving the thing being defined: the achievement of x requires y eg. the achievement of sustainability requires, for example, the integration of environmental, social and economic issues Type : contextual definitions based on the outcomes of the thing being defined: x results in y; eg. sustainable development results inthe meeting of needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of future generations Type : contextual definitions based on what amovement with that label tries to achieve or is interested in: x is what the X movement strives for eg. sustainability is what the Sustainability movement strives for ie. Sustainability encompasses the protection of the environment and people, peace, and end to poverty, the meeting of human needs, enhancement of human wellbeing, promotion of happiness, etc., etc., etc. Furthermore any of these types of definitions can be framed in a more general or a narrower context eg. applied to whole systems eg. society and the environment or just to specific contexts eg. the environment of a particular species, or to specific human communities or a particular economy. The last three types of definition can be useful as they are carefully expressed so it is  clear what sort of context they are creating.But if they are written using words that See Susan Murcotts list of definitions of sustainable development in the Reference section. Where sustaining is used as an adjective (not as a verb). suggest that they are type , or dictionary-style, definitions then these types of definitions usually cause significant confusion. For example, the type definition the achievement of sustainability requires, for example, the integration of environmental, social and economic issues is usually presented as if it were a type definition ie. sustainability is the integration of environmental, social and economic issues.This produces the absurd implication that if we simply consider environmental, social and economic issues together that this somehow generates a sustainability outcome.Often the opposite is true because the issues are traded off against each other and one or more of the objectives are not adequately fulfilled leading to a decline (unsustainability) in the domains traded off. So in this case, a lack of clarity in the expression of the definition leads to a substitution of means for ends and the outcome is unsustainability. The much-used Brundtland definition of sustainable development is a type definition, that is, it describes what theoutcome will be of pursuing sustainable development.The wording that is universally used is â€Å"sustainable developmentis development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs†.But this is in fact a not-careful-enough paraphrasing of the original in the Brundtland report which read: â€Å"Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.† (definition quoted from p. of the Brun dtland Report).The Brundtland statement should have been paraphrased along the followinglines: â€Å"sustainable development can under the right circumstances result in the needs of the present being met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs†. This formulation then focuses peoples attention on what is to be sustained, what needs are to be met in different generations and what strategies are to be applied to get the desired outcomes. Not only is definitional clarity important but so is maintaining a strong relationship between the core meaning of words and their various derived forms.For example, the terms sustainability and sustainable development are now used interchangeably by many people.For some, the motivation fordoing this is to find a shorter term to substitute for sustainable development.Others prefer to use the term sustainability as a synonym for sustainable development because they dont like talking about development since in their experience it has negative connotations either for themselves or for others.  But the end result is that two terms that originally had distinctly different meanings which served practical communication purposes are now blurred into each other thus losing the distinction of meaning. Or sustainable development. Sustainability is about continuity and development is about change. There are manythings about life that we want to sustain (maintain) and many that we want to change.So it makes sense to create the notion of sustainable development that combinesdesired change and desired continuity -for example we might change exploitation,unhappiness, poverty, destructiveness, etc.and sustain the rest of nature, trust, tolerance, honesty, happiness, health, etc.Treated in this waysustainable development doesnt have to be an oxymoron (a combination of conflicting terms). While theory says that sustainable development does not have to be an oxymoron, it can sometimes take quite a bit of negotiation before a whole society can be comfortable with a shared definition of what should be maintained and what should be changed. Developing a preferred definition of environmental sustainability The meanings of words gain their legitimacy from shared use, so in the final analysis there are no independently correct meanings, just meanings that are well understood by many people But words also help to shape our understandings and then our. actions, so the key question is not what is the correct definition? but what do we want environmental sustainability to mean, what would be most desirable? How we choose to answer this questiondepends critically on our preference for treating environmental sustainability as either a practical goal or a utopian concept. The historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee wrote in A study of history () that: The twentieth century will be chiefly remembered by future generations not as an era of political conflicts or technical inventions, but as an age in which human society dared to think of the welfare of the whole human race as a practical objective. Sometimes the meaning of words can evolve into almost their opposite.For example terrific used to mean to c ause extreme terror now it most often means extraordinarily good.The linking meaning was probably exciting eg. the roller coaster ride was terrific†. The quote by English historian Arnold J. Toynbee was used in Lester B. Pearsons Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in . (Pearson won for introducing the concept of peacekeeping through the United Nations.)From: http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates//pearson-lecture.html This could be extended so that we think of our present era as being distinguished as the age in which human society dared to think of the welfare of both the whole human race and the whole planet as a practical objective. If this is so then we can perhaps put aside the idea of seeingenvironmental sustainability as a utopian concept and, instead, opt for seeing it as a practical objective, that is, something to be both aspired to and achieved. But we should be doubly practical. We want to be able to use a definition of environmental sustainability that: makes it easier for us to get things done (the first practicality) and we want the definition to help us focus our minds on getting the most important or relevant things done (the second practicality). To help in getting things done a definition of environmental sustainability will need to: facilitate communication between all the people who need to be involved in the issue make it easier to identify actions that need to be taken in order to achieve environmental sustainability Before exploring how thechoice of definition ofenvironmental sustainabilitycan help us be doubly practical we need to identify some definitional choices that we can apply our choice-criteria to. Some of the basic types of definitions of environmental and sustainability that are used currently are: environmental. referring to just the biological environment referring to all possible environments(contexts) eg. social, economic, physical,intellectual referring to the physical environment including thebiological, the geomorphological environment and theconstructed and cultural physical environments sustainability.. meaning the integration or balancing of social, environmental and economic issues,or programs or actions based on stakeholder or community consultation meaning sustainable development or making people better off in an ethically sound way meaning the ability to sustain something. How should we select among these options if we want to facilitate communication? There is really no sectorof the economy or group of people in the community that should be uninvolved in efforts to achieveenvironmental sustainability.Soifitis possible to use simple definitions that are in common usage throughout the whole community there is a good chance that most people will be able to understand each0 other.Also definitions that are widely spread in the community are likely to be more stable because drifts in meaning that emerge in small groups are not likely to be taken up by the whole population. The compound-concept ofenvironmental sustainability is not widely used in the community, nor is the word sustainability.But the core concept to sustain is widely used, and the term environmentor environmental is widely used.In common usage to sustain means tokeep something going or maintain something.Environment means, incommon usage, either the context or surroundings of something, or itmeans, more specifically, the physical environment.Clearly the Parliament of Victoria, when it passed the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability Act 00, was using the word environment in the sense of the physical environment rather than more universal meaning of the context for anything. How can our choice of definition make it easier to identify actions to take to achieve environmental sustainability? Having an action focus, especially where the aim is actually to achieve desired outcomes, means that it is not helpful touse definitions that are fuzzy or based on logical confusion.So treating sustainability and sustainable development as synonyms (ie. as having the same meaning) is not likely to be a good idea.Adding the word sustainable to development must change the type of development we are talking about otherwise why would we bother talking about sustainable development if we could more conveniently just use the word development?So if we say that sustainability has the same meaning as sustainable development what we saying in logical terms is: Concept A= Concept A + Concept B In other words it doesnt make any logical sense at all! This sort of definitional fuzziness and confusion can only persist where people are not trying to be clear about what they are talking about.And indeed some people argue that sustainability is anunattainable goal so they are not greatly fussed about the details of the definition that they use. (That is, they treat environmental sustainability as a Utopian concept rather than a practical goal.) However, if we want to use a definition ofenvironmental sustainability that makes action easier then we should avoid confusions like defining sustainability as sustainable development. How can our choice of definition help us focus our minds on gettingthe most important or relevant things done? We can only answer this by going back to what motivated societys interest in environmental sustainability in the first place.The historical record makes it clear that people became concerned aboutenvironmental sustainability when they discovered tha t aspects of the environment that they loved or depended on for survival or quality of life were threatened with extinction or serious degradation.There was an urgent concern about loss that made people think about sustainability.Were they originally thinking about integrating environmental, social and economic issues?Not at all.They were worrying about maintaining or keeping going something that they valued.How then did the ‘integration or ‘balance definition emerge?After some years of trying to achieve environmental sustainability people realised that unless they also dealt with the interacting social and economic issues they would simply not succeed in achieving their environmental goals.But did this practical/pragmatic (and perhaps ethical) realisation, change peoples environmental goals? Not really. So why did some people then change the definition of environmental sustainability to mean the integration of environmental, socialand economic issues? It was most likely because their practical focus of attention had shifted to the integration issue and they inadvertently made a classic mistake of confusing means with ends (ie. methods with goals) There is another issue that bears on thequestion of getting the most important or relevant things done.Andthat is, in what way does environmental qualify the notion of sustainability when they are compounded?Doesenvironmental sustainabilityimply the sustainability of thewhole physical environment?Or just parts of it?From a practical point of view the physical environment is so inclusive that no real-lifeenvironmental sustainabilityprogram would everset out to sustain and maintain every aspect.If we tried to do that we would, for example, freeze in place or maintain the distribution and abundance of pest plants and animals, the reduced distribution and abundance of native species, coal-fired power stations and an excessive allocation of land and resourcesto road-based transport, dangerous and resource inef ficient buildings, over-built flood plains, etc. Societys are always selective about what they want to sustain even if the agenda for action is still a huge one (eg. maintaining life support systems, maintaining quality of life, keeping native species going, maintaining the resource-base for the economy, etc.). Finally, if we are concerned to get the most important or relevant things done, what definitions should we rule out? Definitions of sustainability such as the integration or balancing of social, environmental and economic issues, or programs or actions based on stakeholder or community consultation no longer seem appropriate and definingenvironmental sustainability as applying to absolutely everything in the physical environment no longer seems useful. Pulling all these issues together, it is now possible to propose a preferred definition for environmental sustainability as follows: environmental sustainability is the ability to maintain things or qualities that arevalued in the physical environment . This happens because people have a way of expressing themselves that goes like this: environmental sustainability is all about .(insert the practical action or implication of their choice).Then people forget that this is not a definitional statement and they go on to treat it as one. A compatible suite of sustainability terms This suite of words has been developed to distinguish: between what is doing the sustaining and what it is being sustained ie. between means and ends the scope of what is being sustained Word (form) Meaning Suggested usage Incompatible usage sustain (verb) means to maintain something through time; to keep it going; to extend its duration eg. communities are working to sustain ecosystem services, or quality of life or other species sustainability (noun) means the ability or capability to sustain (maintain) something eg. will this community ach ieve sustainability for the things that it wants to persist through time (adjective) means related to or having to do with sustainability eg. a sustainability action plan is an action plan about sustainability not an action plan that can be kept in operation over an extended period sustainable (adjective) means able to be sustained, durable or able to be maintained (note: in this meaning the noun that the word is attached to is the thing that is sustained) eg. a sustainable policy is a policy that is kept in force over an extended period not a policy about sustainability sustaining (adjective) means having the propensity or tend Concepts for Environmental Sustainability Concepts for Environmental Sustainability A Perspective on environmental sustainability? Environmental Sustainability The Commissioner acts as an independent voice that advocates, audits and reports on environmental sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to explore the meaning of environmental sustainability. The community needs a definition of environmental sustainability that is easily understood, is logical, and is helpful in facilitating understanding, communication and effective action by all key players (government, community, business, innovators, academia, communicators, etc.). The paper also explores the meaning of related terms and definitions eg. sustainability and related words in common usage ecologically sustainable development (as defined by the Commissioners enabling legislation) sustainable development (the Brundtland definition) triple bottom line. A preferred definition of environmental sustainability Environmental sustainability is the ability to maintain things or qualities that are valued in the physical environment This is the simplest and most fundamental way to express the concept.But people using the term environmental sustainability can specify or elaborate the term further to add extra meaning or to apply the concept to more specialised contexts. What is the physical environment? This is the physical surrounds to something.For example, the land, waters and atmosphere, physical resources and thebuildings and roadsand other physical elements go to make up the urban environment.Rural environments are made up of the farms and living areas of people andthe land and waters and atmosphere and biological elements (species utilised by agriculture, pest species, and native species, and ecological communities both human induced and natural).Natural environments are those where the influence of wild species (indigenous and naturalised) is dominant or very strong.Physical resources, of all sorts, including mineral resources, can be considered to be part of the environment. Physical environments can be considered on all scales from the micro to the local, global and even larger scales. There is no sharp distinction between the environmental and other domains (eg. social and economic) in fact the content of each domain overlaps other domains massively. The key to understan ding doesnt lie in trying to set non-overlappingboundaries between the domains but lies in being clear about the focus of different domains. (Link to) Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability Act 00 The physical environment includes the natural and biological environments. What makes an issue a sustainability issue? A sustainability issue arises whenever a valued system, object, process or attribute is under threat.The existence of the valued system, object, process or attribute could be threatened or its quality could be threatened with serious decline. In other words there is a sustainability issue whenever there is something that is valued that faces the risk of not being maintained. Whenever there is a strong sense of urgency, there is always a sustainability issue involved.This urgency couldrelate to something thatalready existsortoan understood potential.For example biodiversity might be threatened with extinction or the chance to realise the potential of a human being might be threatened, for example, if they remain in poverty or their lives are threatened by violence or disease.(The latter would usually be thought of as being social sustainability issues.) What exactly are we trying to maintain in the physical environment and who decides? There is no automatic, fixed agenda built into the term environmental sustainability. We have to look to the context to see what might be sustained.And many people and organisations already have well developedideas about what aspects of the total environment should be sustained when environmental sustainability is pursued. In a place like Victoria, with our culture, political processes and physical environment, there is strong public pressure to maintain (sustain) things like: ecosystem services (eg. nutrient cycling, the water cycle, natural water purification, climate moderation, soil protection high quality urban environments areas of natural beauty other species and ecological communities the user value flowing from physical resources (eg. minerals, energy, renewableresources, water) What motivates us to want to sustain something in the physical environment? We might want to sustain something in the physical environment because it is useful to us: e.g. the quality of local urban environments. Or we might want to do it because we care about the wellbeing of other people or other species for their sake, not ours. That is we can be motivated by utilitarian concerns and/or altruism. Sometimes we maintain something in the environmental domain in order to make it possible to achieve another goal in another domain.For example, we might sustain marine habitats in order to support the livelihood of coastal townships.Or we might sustain renewable resources so that we can support economic development or genuine progress Genuine progress is development that creates new benefits without undermining or destroying old benefits that are still valued in the community.In recent years a lot of work has been done on ‘genuine progress indicators as alternatives to GDP measures .) How long should we try to sustain something? This question can only be answered after deciding specifically what needs to be sustained and why. For example, ecosystems services for clean air would need to be sustained as long as there are living things (including people) that need to breatheclean air.For all practical purposes that means forever . Living species seem to last on average a few million years before becoming extinct though some may evolve into new species.So if we maintained a natural extinction rate for species it is so low that for practical purposes we would need to manage in the here and now as if we wanted all species to survive, effectively forever. Sustaining the recycling of certain materials may only need to continue for as long as those material types are needed technologically, and depending on the pace of technical change this could be for centuries or for decades.It is risky to assume that resources are only needed for a short time however as society might find new uses for materials as technology, lifestyles and environmental awareness develop. When it comes to trying to sustain habitat on a site-s pecific basis, very specific localised habitat or ecological community patches might need to persist for anywhere between thousands of years and just a few years depending on the ecological system involved provided all of the dependent species can access these habitat or ecological community typessomewhere consistently and at adequate scale within their local ranges forever. Is there any connection betweenenvironmental sustainability and social or economic sustainability? Since humans depend in countless ways on the physical environment (both natural and human constructed) sustaining desired environmental conditions directly contributes to the sustaining of people and human societies, that is, to social sustainability.The viability of theeconomy clearly depends on environmental resources and service flows so economicsustainability depends on environmental sustainability. More generally it can be seen that sustainability in one domain can be necessary for sustainability in another.Sustainability requirements can be mapped to show complex dependencies across domains.We classify sustainability issues into separate domains, not because the sustainabilityissues are unrelated, but for reasons of convenience and tradition, for example, to allow specialisations to develop in RD and administration, to break up complex whole into mentally manageable chunks, to reflect historical connections, etc. Can the idea of environmental sustainability drive commitments to specific action? While the idea ofenvironmental sustainability is very broad in its possible scope, concerns for environmental sustainability can be translated in specific practical goals and these can and should drive action programs.See the section How to use the definition of environmental sustainability to facilitate effective action. on page . Is restoration part of an environmental sustainability program? In a world where life-support systems and other conditions required for sustainability have been run down,environmental sustainability can only be achieved through a combination of both preventive and restorative actions.So restoration is a key part of what needs to be done to achieve sustainability.In most instances it is better to avoid destroying environmental values in the first place rather than relying on restoration as the primary strategy.However, where damage has been done that could prevent valued elements of the physical environment being sustained, restoration should not be overlooked. If we pursue an environmental sustainability program how much should we try tosustain? The physical environment is powerfully affected by and is made up of evolving systems ecological systems, societies and economies.These evolving systems will create changes in some aspects of the physical environment and will prevent or resist changes in other aspects.So anenvironmental sustainability program could never aim to sustain or maintain absolutely every component and attribute of the entire physical environment.Anyenvironmental sustainability program must start out by being clear about what it is hoped will be maintained in the physical environment and what can be allowed to change or what will be made to change.Precisely what people set out to sustain within the physical environment will depend on their value judgements, needs, skills and technology and available resources to support the action program and the current state and the dynamics of the physical environment.We cannot assume that we automatically know what should be sustained (and what should not) in the physic al environment just because there is an environmental sustainability program operating.We need to work the answer out explicitly. The origin of the core word sustain and its main derivatives The word sustain has been in the language for thousands of years.It comes from the Latin sustenare meaning to hold up ie. to support.From there it evolved long ago to mean to keep something going or extend its duration, with an overtone of providing the support or necessities that made the extended duration possible eg. a sustaining meal.These days, for commonest non-specialised use of the word the closest synonym is maintain. Sustain and its derivatives (eg. sustainability, sustainable, sustaining) were first used in a micro or personal context.However several hundreds of years ago the Swiss and Germans invented a form of forestry designed to keep the forest going as productive systems over the very long term and this was called, in the English speaking world, sustainable forestry.The idea was then extended to sustainable fisheries. From there it was not such a big step for the term to be applied, during the 0s and 0s, in the macro context of environmental issues where there was a need to sustain the whole environment and human society.This usage was established by the time of the UN Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm. The drifts in meaning Having reached a macro level of application sustainability was most often talked about in terms of sustainable development.The 0 World Conservation Strategy produced by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN or World Conservation Union) put forward the concept of sustainable development meaning development that would allow ecosystem services and biodiversity to be sustained.The Brundtland Report shifted the meaning of sustainable development to mean â€Å"development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generationsto meet their own needs†. Then the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio set in train processes such as Agenda and Local Agenda that resulted in many people coming to the view that sustainability equals the integration or balancing of environmental, social and economic issues or simultaneous progress in the environmental, social and economic domains, often in t he context of strong programs of consultation and participation. Many people however felt uneasy with the notion of development as it is often associated with the destruction of environmental and social attributes that they value, so they felt better talking about sustainability rather than sustainable development. So, over time sustainability and sustainable development came to be treated by many people as synonyms.This trend was reinforced because some people found the term sustainable development to be a bit of a mouthful and they used sustainability as a convenient (if inaccurate) shorthand. As the scale of the taskof achieving a sustainable environment and society has become apparent many people have tried to insulate themselves from the enormity of the challenge by retreating into small incremental changes.So some people have started to say that sustainability is a process of change and not an end state, and that its the journey that counts, not the destination. As the terms sustainability and sustainable development have been used more and more in government and corporate circles, because of increasing discussion of environment and development, the business world has started using the terms more and more for its own purposes.Curiouslyin this context sustainable has quickly reverted to its earlier simple meaning of able to be maintained.So sustainable profits, or sustainable competitive advantage mean profits or competitive advantage that can be maintained for the longer term.The straightforward use of sustain and its derivatives within the domain of business is understandable because businesses face competition and hence the risk of decline and extinction every day of the week.This experience of threat leads business people to reproduce meanings of the terms that are the same as those in long-term common usage or those in the area of biological conservation. The benefits of definitional clarity and a strong relationship to core meanings The important benefit of definitional clarity is that it makes it easier to avoid logical problems and makes effective action more likely. A search on the web reveals hundreds of definitions of sustainability and sustainable development Although this diversity is a little overwhelmingit is not really. surprising given that there are many diverse people involved in the sustainability debate and there are legitimate complexities involved.However, a careful review of these definitions reveals that they fall into four basic categories only one of which (type ) is a normal dictionary-style definition.The other types are referred to in this paper as contextual definitions because they create a greater understanding of the context of a term rather than defining its essence.The four types of definitions are: Type : definitions based on the essence: x is/means y eg. sustainability is/means the ability to sustain something; sustainable development is development that can be maintained; sustaining development is development that sustains something Type : contextual definitions based onstrategies for achieving the thing being defined: the achievement of x requires y eg. the achievement of sustainability requires, for example, the integration of environmental, social and economic issues Type : contextual definitions based on the outcomes of the thing being defined: x results in y; eg. sustainable development results inthe meeting of needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of future generations Type : contextual definitions based on what amovement with that label tries to achieve or is interested in: x is what the X movement strives for eg. sustainability is what the Sustainability movement strives for ie. Sustainability encompasses the protection of the environment and people, peace, and end to poverty, the meeting of human needs, enhancement of human wellbeing, promotion of happiness, etc., etc., etc. Furthermore any of these types of definitions can be framed in a more general or a narrower context eg. applied to whole systems eg. society and the environment or just to specific contexts eg. the environment of a particular species, or to specific human communities or a particular economy. The last three types of definition can be useful as they are carefully expressed so it is  clear what sort of context they are creating.But if they are written using words that See Susan Murcotts list of definitions of sustainable development in the Reference section. Where sustaining is used as an adjective (not as a verb). suggest that they are type , or dictionary-style, definitions then these types of definitions usually cause significant confusion. For example, the type definition the achievement of sustainability requires, for example, the integration of environmental, social and economic issues is usually presented as if it were a type definition ie. sustainability is the integration of environmental, social and economic issues.This produces the absurd implication that if we simply consider environmental, social and economic issues together that this somehow generates a sustainability outcome.Often the opposite is true because the issues are traded off against each other and one or more of the objectives are not adequately fulfilled leading to a decline (unsustainability) in the domains traded off. So in this case, a lack of clarity in the expression of the definition leads to a substitution of means for ends and the outcome is unsustainability. The much-used Brundtland definition of sustainable development is a type definition, that is, it describes what theoutcome will be of pursuing sustainable development.The wording that is universally used is â€Å"sustainable developmentis development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs†.But this is in fact a not-careful-enough paraphrasing of the original in the Brundtland report which read: â€Å"Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.† (definition quoted from p. of the Brun dtland Report).The Brundtland statement should have been paraphrased along the followinglines: â€Å"sustainable development can under the right circumstances result in the needs of the present being met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs†. This formulation then focuses peoples attention on what is to be sustained, what needs are to be met in different generations and what strategies are to be applied to get the desired outcomes. Not only is definitional clarity important but so is maintaining a strong relationship between the core meaning of words and their various derived forms.For example, the terms sustainability and sustainable development are now used interchangeably by many people.For some, the motivation fordoing this is to find a shorter term to substitute for sustainable development.Others prefer to use the term sustainability as a synonym for sustainable development because they dont like talking about development since in their experience it has negative connotations either for themselves or for others.  But the end result is that two terms that originally had distinctly different meanings which served practical communication purposes are now blurred into each other thus losing the distinction of meaning. Or sustainable development. Sustainability is about continuity and development is about change. There are manythings about life that we want to sustain (maintain) and many that we want to change.So it makes sense to create the notion of sustainable development that combinesdesired change and desired continuity -for example we might change exploitation,unhappiness, poverty, destructiveness, etc.and sustain the rest of nature, trust, tolerance, honesty, happiness, health, etc.Treated in this waysustainable development doesnt have to be an oxymoron (a combination of conflicting terms). While theory says that sustainable development does not have to be an oxymoron, it can sometimes take quite a bit of negotiation before a whole society can be comfortable with a shared definition of what should be maintained and what should be changed. Developing a preferred definition of environmental sustainability The meanings of words gain their legitimacy from shared use, so in the final analysis there are no independently correct meanings, just meanings that are well understood by many people But words also help to shape our understandings and then our. actions, so the key question is not what is the correct definition? but what do we want environmental sustainability to mean, what would be most desirable? How we choose to answer this questiondepends critically on our preference for treating environmental sustainability as either a practical goal or a utopian concept. The historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee wrote in A study of history () that: The twentieth century will be chiefly remembered by future generations not as an era of political conflicts or technical inventions, but as an age in which human society dared to think of the welfare of the whole human race as a practical objective. Sometimes the meaning of words can evolve into almost their opposite.For example terrific used to mean to c ause extreme terror now it most often means extraordinarily good.The linking meaning was probably exciting eg. the roller coaster ride was terrific†. The quote by English historian Arnold J. Toynbee was used in Lester B. Pearsons Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in . (Pearson won for introducing the concept of peacekeeping through the United Nations.)From: http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates//pearson-lecture.html This could be extended so that we think of our present era as being distinguished as the age in which human society dared to think of the welfare of both the whole human race and the whole planet as a practical objective. If this is so then we can perhaps put aside the idea of seeingenvironmental sustainability as a utopian concept and, instead, opt for seeing it as a practical objective, that is, something to be both aspired to and achieved. But we should be doubly practical. We want to be able to use a definition of environmental sustainability that: makes it easier for us to get things done (the first practicality) and we want the definition to help us focus our minds on getting the most important or relevant things done (the second practicality). To help in getting things done a definition of environmental sustainability will need to: facilitate communication between all the people who need to be involved in the issue make it easier to identify actions that need to be taken in order to achieve environmental sustainability Before exploring how thechoice of definition ofenvironmental sustainabilitycan help us be doubly practical we need to identify some definitional choices that we can apply our choice-criteria to. Some of the basic types of definitions of environmental and sustainability that are used currently are: environmental. referring to just the biological environment referring to all possible environments(contexts) eg. social, economic, physical,intellectual referring to the physical environment including thebiological, the geomorphological environment and theconstructed and cultural physical environments sustainability.. meaning the integration or balancing of social, environmental and economic issues,or programs or actions based on stakeholder or community consultation meaning sustainable development or making people better off in an ethically sound way meaning the ability to sustain something. How should we select among these options if we want to facilitate communication? There is really no sectorof the economy or group of people in the community that should be uninvolved in efforts to achieveenvironmental sustainability.Soifitis possible to use simple definitions that are in common usage throughout the whole community there is a good chance that most people will be able to understand each0 other.Also definitions that are widely spread in the community are likely to be more stable because drifts in meaning that emerge in small groups are not likely to be taken up by the whole population. The compound-concept ofenvironmental sustainability is not widely used in the community, nor is the word sustainability.But the core concept to sustain is widely used, and the term environmentor environmental is widely used.In common usage to sustain means tokeep something going or maintain something.Environment means, incommon usage, either the context or surroundings of something, or itmeans, more specifically, the physical environment.Clearly the Parliament of Victoria, when it passed the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability Act 00, was using the word environment in the sense of the physical environment rather than more universal meaning of the context for anything. How can our choice of definition make it easier to identify actions to take to achieve environmental sustainability? Having an action focus, especially where the aim is actually to achieve desired outcomes, means that it is not helpful touse definitions that are fuzzy or based on logical confusion.So treating sustainability and sustainable development as synonyms (ie. as having the same meaning) is not likely to be a good idea.Adding the word sustainable to development must change the type of development we are talking about otherwise why would we bother talking about sustainable development if we could more conveniently just use the word development?So if we say that sustainability has the same meaning as sustainable development what we saying in logical terms is: Concept A= Concept A + Concept B In other words it doesnt make any logical sense at all! This sort of definitional fuzziness and confusion can only persist where people are not trying to be clear about what they are talking about.And indeed some people argue that sustainability is anunattainable goal so they are not greatly fussed about the details of the definition that they use. (That is, they treat environmental sustainability as a Utopian concept rather than a practical goal.) However, if we want to use a definition ofenvironmental sustainability that makes action easier then we should avoid confusions like defining sustainability as sustainable development. How can our choice of definition help us focus our minds on gettingthe most important or relevant things done? We can only answer this by going back to what motivated societys interest in environmental sustainability in the first place.The historical record makes it clear that people became concerned aboutenvironmental sustainability when they discovered tha t aspects of the environment that they loved or depended on for survival or quality of life were threatened with extinction or serious degradation.There was an urgent concern about loss that made people think about sustainability.Were they originally thinking about integrating environmental, social and economic issues?Not at all.They were worrying about maintaining or keeping going something that they valued.How then did the ‘integration or ‘balance definition emerge?After some years of trying to achieve environmental sustainability people realised that unless they also dealt with the interacting social and economic issues they would simply not succeed in achieving their environmental goals.But did this practical/pragmatic (and perhaps ethical) realisation, change peoples environmental goals? Not really. So why did some people then change the definition of environmental sustainability to mean the integration of environmental, socialand economic issues? It was most likely because their practical focus of attention had shifted to the integration issue and they inadvertently made a classic mistake of confusing means with ends (ie. methods with goals) There is another issue that bears on thequestion of getting the most important or relevant things done.Andthat is, in what way does environmental qualify the notion of sustainability when they are compounded?Doesenvironmental sustainabilityimply the sustainability of thewhole physical environment?Or just parts of it?From a practical point of view the physical environment is so inclusive that no real-lifeenvironmental sustainabilityprogram would everset out to sustain and maintain every aspect.If we tried to do that we would, for example, freeze in place or maintain the distribution and abundance of pest plants and animals, the reduced distribution and abundance of native species, coal-fired power stations and an excessive allocation of land and resourcesto road-based transport, dangerous and resource inef ficient buildings, over-built flood plains, etc. Societys are always selective about what they want to sustain even if the agenda for action is still a huge one (eg. maintaining life support systems, maintaining quality of life, keeping native species going, maintaining the resource-base for the economy, etc.). Finally, if we are concerned to get the most important or relevant things done, what definitions should we rule out? Definitions of sustainability such as the integration or balancing of social, environmental and economic issues, or programs or actions based on stakeholder or community consultation no longer seem appropriate and definingenvironmental sustainability as applying to absolutely everything in the physical environment no longer seems useful. Pulling all these issues together, it is now possible to propose a preferred definition for environmental sustainability as follows: environmental sustainability is the ability to maintain things or qualities that arevalued in the physical environment . This happens because people have a way of expressing themselves that goes like this: environmental sustainability is all about .(insert the practical action or implication of their choice).Then people forget that this is not a definitional statement and they go on to treat it as one. A compatible suite of sustainability terms This suite of words has been developed to distinguish: between what is doing the sustaining and what it is being sustained ie. between means and ends the scope of what is being sustained Word (form) Meaning Suggested usage Incompatible usage sustain (verb) means to maintain something through time; to keep it going; to extend its duration eg. communities are working to sustain ecosystem services, or quality of life or other species sustainability (noun) means the ability or capability to sustain (maintain) something eg. will this community ach ieve sustainability for the things that it wants to persist through time (adjective) means related to or having to do with sustainability eg. a sustainability action plan is an action plan about sustainability not an action plan that can be kept in operation over an extended period sustainable (adjective) means able to be sustained, durable or able to be maintained (note: in this meaning the noun that the word is attached to is the thing that is sustained) eg. a sustainable policy is a policy that is kept in force over an extended period not a policy about sustainability sustaining (adjective) means having the propensity or tend