Sustainability — Science definition
Defined in 3 courses:
- Meeting the needs of people today without ruining the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. (Earth & Space Science)
- Using resources in a way that meets present needs without using them up or damaging the environment for future generations. (Life Science: Biology)
- Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. (Physics & Environmental Science)
Where it is taught
- Human Impact & Stewardship — Resources & Human Decisions, Earth & Space Science, Grade 9
- Human Impact & Conservation — Ecosystems & Conservation Decisions, Life Science: Biology, Grade 10
- Sustainability & Solutions — Conservation, Systems & Environmental Design, Physics & Environmental Science, Grade 12
In use
The goal stewardship aims at has a name too, sustainability: living in a way that meets today's needs without wrecking tomorrow's ability to do the same.
Human Impact & Stewardship
Sustainability tackles the root causes by meeting human needs without exhausting the planet: shifting to renewable energy to cut greenhouse gases, farming and fishing at rates ecosystems can replenish, protecting wetlands and forests that store carbon, and the everyday habits of reducing, reusing, and recycling.
Human Impact & Conservation
Sustainability asks how present needs can be met while preserving options and ecological capacities for future people.
Sustainability & Solutions
Questions using sustainability
Problem 1
Answer and explanation
A personal action is reducing, reusing, and recycling, which cuts the demand for raw materials and energy and lessens pollution and habitat destruction from extracting new resources. A societal action is shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy like solar and wind, which lowers greenhouse gas emissions and slows climate change. Both meet human needs while using resources at a rate ecosystems can sustain, protecting biodiversity for the future. (Other valid answers include protecting habitat, sustainable farming or fishing, and using less water or energy.)
Problem 2
- Protecting one endangered species while ignoring its habitat
- Using up resources as quickly as possible to grow the economy today
- Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
- Returning human society to a time before any technology existed
Answer and explanation
Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
Sustainability balances present needs against the future, ensuring that using resources today does not rob later generations of the ability to meet their own needs.
Taught alongside
- stewardship
- conservation
- per-capita consumption
- biodiversity
- greenhouse gas
- habitat fragmentation
- invasive species
- ecological footprint
- biocapacity
- renewable energy
- carrying capacity