Sustainability is a word that people use almost daily about the ability to have enough of their needs to keep them going. However, the term has a deeper meaning that has a rich history attached to it. The history of the word sustainability is not common to many people, and many individuals will only settle for the ordinary meaning as given in the English dictionary. This paper looks at the origin and history of world sustainability and how it is essential to the current community. We will also look at how sustainability became a movement and how it has evolved over the years.
The Origin and History of Sustainability
The term sustainability appeared in 1987 in the Brundtland Report, also referred to as ‘Our Common Future’ produced by many countries for the United Nations. The report was established by a commission led by Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland (Freitas, 2021). The term came as a result of the pressing need to study and identify the effect of human activity on the environment. In the report, Dr. Brundtland described sustainable development as the development that can meet the current time’s needs jeopardizing future generations’ ability to sustain their needs (Mensah, 2019). The terminology came up from the ever-increasing cognizance of an impending environmental crisis, which seemed to be the driving force of world history towards the end of the 20th century.
The word is majorly connected to the fact that people wanted to save the environment from the effects of pollution. Pollution started hitting high when the industrial revolution picked its speed, and the environment suffered from human activities such as deforestation. Wood served as a fuel source and was used in construction and as a raw material for several industrial processes (Tomislav, 2018). As a result of the immense usage of wood in shipbuilding, mining activities, and several other reasons, the scarcity of wood posed an enormous problem in Europe. The lack of wood brought fear that human lives were threatened, and this got a reaction for a more responsible way of using natural resources. The responsible use of natural resources was to ensure that the interests of current and future generations were considered. This thinking gave birth to sustainability, and the main aim was to ensure that the environment was conserved correctly to guarantee its longevity.
Long before the term ‘sustainable development became a word used generally, several publications had been made that had similar content to the current sustainable development. In the book ‘Principles of Political Economy,’ John Stuart Mill eintegrated a concise chapter on the ‘Stationary state,’ highlighting the stationary situation of the population and capital but nothing on human development (Eisenberg, 2018). Therefore, even though the word sustainability appears in the Brundtland report, its impacts were felt long before that. From the overview, we can see that the concept of sustainability has roots in the ancient period. Population growth, increased consumption post the industrial revolution, and the fear that natural assets such as coal, oil, and wood could be exhausted catalyzed the idea of sustainability.
The start and Development of the Sustainability Movement
The sustainability movement started in 1800 from those individuals concerned about the environmental and social effects of heavy industrialization. Those concerns were majorly related to the growth of the industrial revolution, which brought about massive air pollution and untreated human waste released into the environment due to industrialization (Ansari, 2022). However, the sustainability movement became more active in the 20th century as people conducted more research on the matter. The study revealed the scale of adverse human effects on the environment and the time when the damage became more evident. People started forming organizations that would help fight against environmental degradation, which brought up the movement. With the increased knowledge of the effects caused by human activity on the environment, sustainability has massively evolved. People have taken different approaches to ensure that they protect the environment and achieve Dr. Brundtland’s definition of sustainable development.
In the 21st century, the idea of sustainable development has become a goal that is widely identified in human society. The sustainability movement now has a lot of resources and tools that it can use to drive its agenda. The use of social media and more scientific evidence on climate change has made the work easier to spread the concepts and call for action (Pearce et al., 2019). The comprehensive awareness has seen more people joining in the move to change the operations and put in efforts for climate change. There has been a lot of online activism carried out by the sustainability movement, and it has even gone as far as voting for political organizations with unique green agendas. More and more people are taking the issue of sustainability seriously, giving the movement more strength and purpose to push its agenda.
In conclusion, the signs of sustainability have been with us since ancient times. The biggest goal of the concept is to ensure that the environment is preserved to give us a chance to live and the coming generations something to inherit from us. The history of sustainability is evident from several years ago, and the effects are also noticeable. Everyone must ensure that they have proper measures to protect the environment. It has been a struggle for many people who would be proud to realize that the generations after them have taken the matter seriously.
References
Ansari, M. A. (2022). Re-visiting the Environmental Kuznets curve for ASEAN: A comparison between ecological footprint and carbon dioxide emissions. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 168, 112867.
Du Pisani, J. A. (2006). Sustainable development–historical roots of the concept. Environmental sciences, 3(2), 83-96.
Eisenberg, J. M. (2018). John Stuart Mill on History: Human Nature, Progress, and the Stationary State. Rowman & Littlefield.
Freitas, M. R. (2021). Beyond the sustainability of the unsustainable: rethinking our common future.
Mensah, J. (2019). Sustainable development: Meaning, history, principles, pillars, and implications for human action: Literature review. Cogent social sciences, 5(1), 1653531.
Pearce, W., Niederer, S., Özkula, S. M., & Sánchez Querubín, N. (2019). The social media life of climate change: Platforms, publics, and future imaginaries. Wiley interdisciplinary reviews: Climate change, 10(2), e569.
Tomislav, K. (2018). The concept of sustainable development: From its beginning to the contemporary issues. Zagreb International Review of Economics & Business, 21(1), 67-94.
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